The Foresteria Valdese di Venezia is based in Palazzo Cavagnis, on calle Longa Santa Maria Formosa.
The earliest known owners were a branch of the noble Morosini family of Venice. In 1711 Antonio Francesco Cavagnis (or Cavanis), from a wealthy family of artists from Bergamo, acquired the building from Lucrezia Morosini in Savorgnan. Antonio Cavagnis had the building rebuilt to a design by architect Domenico Rossi.
In 1810 Carlo Bevilacqua painted the legend of Bacchus and Ariadne on the ceiling of a first storey room. Other rooms on the same floor were decorated and frescoed by Venetian artists already by the 1700s.
The building, by now known as Cavagnis, was linked by a bridge to Calle Longa Santa Maria Formosa. On 26 February 1918, the bombing of Venice demolished the nearby embarkation point and damaged the fresco on the dining room ceiling.
Thanks to the solidarity of foreign Protestant churches, the Valdese Church bought the Palazzo in 1868. Palazzo Cavagnis is inscribed as a national monument.
Fondazione Veneto Film Commission
Via Carducci, 32 – 30171 Venezia Mestre
Phone: +39 041 279 43 38
Email: info@venetofilmcommission.com
