The Barnabotti walk is relatively compact and has a variety of sights, taking in a major museum and art gallery, and the fascinating Campo Santa Margherita.  This walk matches well with the Titian walk (#5) in San Polo or the Salute walk (#12) which starts near where this one ends.

Having disembarked from the Vaporetto stop Ca’Rezzonico, visit the first two points of interest in the order you prefer.  The small courtyard at the front of the Palazzo Stern (POI #1) has a vera da pozzo that is thought to be 1,000 years old.  Learn more about the well heads of Venice here.

On the other side of the vaporetto stop lies Ca’ Rezzonico, a very worthwhile stop on this walk – especially for the art and the history lovers.  The building houses the Museum of 18th-century Venice and was originally designed by Baldassare Longhena (of the Salute fame, see Walk #12) for the Bon family around 1667.  After Longhena’s death in 1682, the project was supervised by Antonio Gaspari but failed to extend beyond the first floor.  The hiatus ended when the heirs of Filippo Bon engaged Giorgio Massari to construct the next two floors, but the Bon’s fortunes took a turn for the worse and the building was purchased by Giambattista Rezzonico.  It was completed in 1758.

Under the Rezzonico, the palazzo became richly endowed with art works and furnishings.  Without an heir, the family relinquished the building and it changed hands several times in the following decades.  Famous tenants included the poet Robert Browning who died here in 1889, and the composer and songwriter Cole Porter who rented the premises from 1926 to 1927.  It was purchased by the city in 1935 to exhibit 18th-century art collections.  The collection has been brought together from stripped frescoes or ceiling canvases from other city palazzi.  The result is an impressive display of an 18^th century Venetian palazzo filled with the artworks of the era.  Externally, look for the complex interplay of architectural elements on the façade and the effect that they create.  Source: https://carezzonico.visitmuve.it/en/il-museo/museum/building-and-history/.

The artworks and furnishings on display come from a variety of sources including the Egidio Martini collection (Venetian artists from 15^th – 20^th century) and the Mestrovich collection which includes works by Tintoretto, Conegliano and Guardi.  The first-floor ballroom is the largest of its kind in Venice, reflecting the grandeur with which wealthy Venetian families entertained during that period.  Look for Crosato’s ‘Apollo’s Chariot and the Four Continents’.  In the next room (Sala dell’Allegoria Nuziale) look for Tiepolo’s ‘Nuptial Allegory’ and the portrait of Giambattista’s younger brother Carlo who was elected Pope as Clement III.  There is also a Tiepolo room with the magnificent ‘Virtue and Nobility Triumphing over Ignorance’ which was originally created for Palazzo Barbarigo (Walk 12 POI #6).  There are simply too many great works in this gallery/cultural collection to describe here.  Their website provides a good guide: https://carezzonico.visitmuve.it/

Heading away from Ca’ Rezzonico, you will soon arrive at the Church of San Barnaba.  The current building dates from 1749-76 after a rebuild from a church built here in 1105 and is by Lorenzo Boschetti.  The façade is based on the design of the Gesuati (see Walk #12), and it has one of the oldest bell towers in Venice (dating back to the 11^th century and renovated in 1882).  The church has been deconsecrated and currently serves as an exhibition space for devices invented by Leonardo da Vinci.  To take in the art highlights (works by Palma Giovane) you will need to visit the exhibition.  The campo in front of the church is part of modern popular culture; it is where Indiana Jones emerges from a hatch in the pavement after some subterranean antics during his search for the Holy Grail.  We return to Campo San Barnaba on our return leg of this walk.

Admire the old bell tower of San Barnaba as you cross the bridge on the north-west corner of the church (look to the right) and then follow along a fairly straight line towards Ca’ Foscari.  This building is now a university campus, but the Foscari coat of arms can still be seen over the entrance gateway to the rear courtyard.

The next leg of the journey is a short ‘loop’ designed to return you to the sestiere of Dorsoduro without having to double back.  You will pass other points of interest from Walk #5 which may be opportune for a visit, including the church and campo of San Pantalon.  Details here from Walk #5:

The church of San Pantaleone (San Pantalon).  Founded in the 9^th century, the church was rebuilt in the 13^th century and consecrated in 1305.  The building you can see now was the result of a rebuild finished in 1680 and the bell tower in 1732.  Despite its plain appearance due to a lack of a façade, the church houses some lesser-known treasures of art by the likes of Veronese, Paolo Veneziano (active 1333-1358) and Antonio Vivarini (active 1440-1480).  Then there is the Giovan Antonio Fumiani ceiling – a monster work that consists of 40 canvases sewn together and is 443 square metres in size, created between 1684-1704.  The artist himself was buried here when he died in 1710.  There are other elements of the campo that are interesting once you exit the church.  Look for the plaque inscribing the allowable size for fish to be sold in the local fish market.  You will find this at the bottom right hand corner of the Palazzo Signolo-Loredan at Nos 3707-3708.

Returning to Dorsoduro over the bridge on the southern side of Campo San Pantalon, you will encounter a small Campiello and the base of the partially demolished bell tower of Santa Margherita (POI #7).  Look for the small architectural details and the interesting portals on the building. 

Santa Margherita is one of the oldest churches in Venice, dating back as far as the year 836, being consecrated in 853 during the reign of Doge Pietro Tradonico. The current church dates from 1687.  Saint Margaret of Antioch was very popular in the East, as was Saint Pantalon nearby (see above), which suggests that this area was once popular with Byzantine merchants.  The church was suppressed in 1808, becoming a tobacco factory and then a storehouse for marble from other suppressed churches.  From 1882 the building was used as a Protestant church, then the studio of sculptor Luigi Borro.  It is now a lecture hall for Venice University’s architecture faculty.  (Churches of Venice website).

Pushing on just a little further will reveal a collection of somewhat grotesque sculptural fragments attached to the church and some parts of the adjacent building.  On the building around to the left at No. 3429/B you will see a statue of Saint Margaret at the top of the façade.  She is standing on the body of a dragon.

Campo Santa Margherita has an elongated shape and was enlarged by filling in some of the canals on its southern side (look for ‘rio tera’ streets, these designate filled in canals).  There are several points of interest that could be visited in any order that pleases you.  Included amongst them is the Scuola dei Varoteri (the tanners and fur vendors, POI #11).  The guild can be traced back to the year 1271 and this building became their headquarters in 1725.  The relief above the doorway of the building shows Our Lady of Mercy sheltering the brethren of the guild and is dated 1501.  It was moved here from their original headquarters in Cannaregio at the church of Santa Maria dei Crociferi which has now been demolished.  At the bottom left corner of the building there is another plaque that indicates the regulation minimum sizes for the fish that could be sold in the market here.

There are two more historical buildings of interest in the Campo.  At No. 2931 is Ca’Foscolo-Corner (POI #14) with the family coat of arms still on display in the archway above the entrance on the left.  At Nos. 2945-62 there are two 14^th century houses bisected by Sottoportego de l’Uva.  The two vera da pozzo in the campo that you may notice are hexagonal in shape and dated to 1530.

Leaving the campo in its south-eastern corner via Rio Tera Canal you will soon arrive at the Ponte dei Pugni (POI #16) one of several ‘fighting bridges’ in the city where rival clans would stage battles (note the commemorative footstep imprints on the surface of the bridge).  There were different kinds of fights, some involving fists and others with sticks, and they have been depicted in various paintings (notably Gabriele Bella’s ‘Ponte Santa Fosca’ which now hangs in the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, see Walk 10, POI #1).  At the time of these battles the bridges had no balustrades, so combatants coming off second best would likely end up in the water.  The two warring factions were known as the Nicoletti (mostly fishermen) and the Castellani (mostly workers from the Arsenale).  These identities were forged as far back as 1178 during the time of Doge Sebastiano Ziani (Ian Coulling).

After the bridge you will be back in Campo San Barnaba, now a familiar sight.  On the southern edge of the campo you will pass under a sottoportego, then a bridge and finally you will walk next to a canal with the final two points of interest ahead – a restaurant and a bookshop.  This walk finishes near the start point of Walk #12 if you are feeling energetic!