In the 1800s it was the city’s most elegant street. Its position at the commercial heart of the city and its elegant buildings made it an ideal residential area. In the first half of the nineteenth century it housed the consulates of Antwerp, Bremen, Lübeck, Hanover, Prussia, Saxony and Great Britain. Today it is characterized by restaurants and antique shops.
The street took this name in the XVIII century in honour of the Marquis Alessandro Dal Borro, Governor of the city from 1678 to 1701.
In the eighteenth century it was inhabited mainly by mostly wealthy foreign merchants. The ground floors of the buildings were used as warehouses, while elegant homes were situated on upper floors.
The Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, built by order of Cosimo III at the beginning of the eighteenth century, acted as a pawnbroker’s and supported and provided incentives for exchanges and trade.
The Baroque-style Palazzo delle Colonne di Marmo is a typical example of an eighteenth century mercantile building with dual entrances – one on the road and another on the opposite side leading to the canal for the direct arrival and storage of goods in the cellars below.
The elegant architecture of Palazzo Huigens, with its beautiful interior courtyard with open galleries and balconies, was built by the wealthy German merchant, Edward Brassart, and sold a few years later to Anton Huigens.
Important personalities, including the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III and King Frederick IV of Denmark, were guests here.
Are you a local? What do you think about Via Borra?
Login to suggest it!