The palace closes the north side of Campo Santa Maria Formosa, one of Venice’s most striking squares, and its classical-looking façade is easy to recognise: three tiers of pilasters, string courses, balusters and a large arched dormer that carries the façade above the roofline. Bartolomeo Manopola, chief architect of the Doge’s Palace, designed it for the Ruzzini in the years after 1586, when a fire destroyed their earlier homes.