Murder at the Venice Casino

Loredan Vendramin Calergi Palace, home of the Venice Casino, is one of the most beautiful Renaissance style palaces on the Grand Canal.

The history of this building, however, is marred by a terrible crime, which took place within its walls in 1658.

At the beginning of the 1600s its owner, Vettor Calergi, having no heirs, left the palace to the three children of his sister, who had married a man from the Grimani family. These three brothers were bad people and during a night in 1658 they kidnapped Francesco Querini Stampalia, their arch enemy and brought him into the palace.

After a series of tortures, the prisoner was killed (according to tradition, mauled by a tiger), but the government of Venice discovered the crime and the three Grimani were banished forever from the territories of the Republic, and the wing where Querini had been murdered was demolished and in its place a column of infamy to remember the event was built.

However, in 1660 the three Grimani brothers managed to return to Venice, giving the Republic 7,350 ducats to support the war against the Turks and thus, and rebuilt the destroyed wing and everything was forgotten... The power of money!