An important 16th century palace, this is one of the main achievements of the Venice of the time. At the beginning of the 16th century, Antonio Grimani gave his sons the family house at Santa Maria Formosa: later, on the advice of celebrated architects such as Jacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio e Andrea Palladio, Antonio's grandsons - Vettore, a Procurator of St. Mark's and Giovanni, the Patriarch of Aquileia - substantially altered the building and gave it a classical stamp.
The palazzo, reopened to the public in 2008, housed Giovanni Grimani's archaeological collection, one of the finest of the time, which was strikingly displayed on shelves, mantelpieces and plinths in settings such as the specially designed Tribuna and the courtyard.
The decoration of the rooms is of extraordinarily high quality, with outstanding stucco-work and frescoes reflecting the confidently unconventional taste of the Grimanis and executed by Mannerist artists such as Giovanni da Udine, Francesco Salviati, Camillo Mantovano, Francesco Menzocchi and Federico Zuccari.