From Wikepedia...The Ducal Palace was the residence of the Doge up to the fall of the Venetian
Republic in I797 a public palace and seat of the administration of justice. the highest and richest
symbol of Venetian civilisation, of its cultural, military, political and economic history. All
historic periods are represented in an extraordinary stratification of structural and decorative
elements: from the antique foundations of the original Gothic complex, to the great halls dedicated to
political life and decorated by the canvases of Veronese. Tintoretto and the great masters of the
Renaissance. to the precious rooms of the Doges apartment, from the dark prisons and places of torture
to the luminous loggias on the Piazza and the Lagoon.