The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople.
‘La Serenísima’ was a Byzantine title, bestowed upon the Doge and the Signoria at first, then extended to the entire Republic of Venice. ‘Most Serene’ was an honorary appellate and an indicator of sovereignty.
But there is another reason why Venice has continued carrying this nickname, which has become legendary, just as the city itself, through the centuries. From the outside, Venice looked like a peaceful place, spared from the turmoil affecting so many other cities.
The choice to focus on maritime trade brought prosperity, and the establishment of an oligarchic, liberal republic laid the foundation for a solid state, universally accepted by its citizens, who, no matter their class, seemed to get along well, united by the devotion for the territory they lived in. Even when dealing with foreign policy affairs, Venice often tried to avoid conflict and disputes, preferring mediation and peace.
On these bases, Venice could well be described as ‘serene’, so much so that it was able to survive for three centuries its political, military and commercial decline, caused by Turkish expansion and the discovery of the Americas.
Diplomacy, wealth, justice and prosperity, the main aspects of the history of Venice, have indeed made it ‘Serenissima’.
The Byzatine Empire disolved around 1453 but struggle for control of Venice had gone on, and would continue for centuries. Ottoman–Venetian wars were a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice that started in 1396 and lasted until 1718. As a Venetian ambassador expressed, “being merchants, we cannot live without them.” The Ottomans sold wheat, spices, raw silk, cotton, and ash (for glass making) to the Venetians, while Venice provided the Ottomans with finished goods such as soap, paper, and textiles.
Giovanni Dario, a bourgeois of Dalmatian origins , carried out important tasks for the Republic of Venice : he was a merchant, notary of the ducal chancery, ducal secretary and earned the title of “savior of the fatherland“ after, in 1479 , he managed to negotiate a peace agreement with the Ottomans (Turks). For these tasks Serenissima had given Dario large some of money as a reward, but by this time Dario was quite old so he commissioned a house be built for his daughter Marietta as a dowry for her and soon to be husband Vincenzo Barbaro, a wealthy spice merchant who owned the homonymous palace in Campo San Vio.
Dario entrusted the task to the architect Pietro Lombardo , helped by his sons Tullio and Antonio , to design a new construction or probably a “rehabilitation” -a major restoration of another pre-existent construction, which we now associate as Ca ‘Dario.
This, however, is not entirely clear if it was a new construction or a major restoration , which on the death of Giovanni, be the inheritance and dowry constituted for his daughter Marietta .
This is where the curse comes in. According to Marieta’s will written at the age of 26 when she was about to give birth in February 1499,
” Considering, I am Marieta daughter of the q. ms. Zuan Dario and presently consort of the nobelman Vicenzo Barbaro, no one can be more certain than death and more uncertain than the hour of death, not wanting to be without testament, let it be known I am of healthy mind, and sound intelect and am writing this before delivery, I sent for the notice of Venice and a priest who prayed that my testament and upon my death leave my land and fortune “……
… .I [n] sinsisting always that my house ,given by my father placed in the contrata de san Vido be given to my males heirs for use during their life, may and not sell to a foreigner . . ”
The architectural beauty of Ca ‘Dario contrasts with its fame as a cursed palace , a nominee conferred by the tragic destiny that has united many of its owners.
According to an alleged curse on the house, the owners of Ca ‘Dario would be destined to end up on the pavement or die of violent death.
The house in Contrada San Vido today San Vio is precisely Ca ‘Dario near the properties of the Barbaro and remained their property for 4 generations until the early nineteenth century, some claim that it was sold before the end of 1600, but there is no evidence found on this, but would seem why there would be the curse ,having sold to a foreigner,
Marietta, the daughter of Giovanni Dario, is said to have committed suicide following the financial collapse of her husband Vincenzo Barbaro, who died stabbed . Tragedy also struck their son Giacomo, who died in an ambush in Candia , on the island of Crete . Another son Gasparo, died at 18. These deaths caused a sensation among the Venetians, who wrote the inscription on the façade, VRBIS GENIO IOANNES DARIVS to SVB RVINA INSIDIOSA GENERO (in Latin, “I create an insidious ruin”). Which I highlighted in blue below.
A descendant sold Ca ‘Dario to an Armenian merchant of precious stones Arbit Abdoll, who went bankrupt shortly after taking possession of the house. Abdoll, in 1838, was forced to sell Ca ‘Dario for 480 pounds to Englishman Rawdon Brown.
the website paranormalitaly.com cites: what is written
I had stayed at Rawdon Brown: ” who, in turn, sold it four years later for lack of money to restructure it. The building was then bought by a Hungarian count and then sold to a wealthy Irishman, Mr. Marshall, to be bought in 1896 by Countess Isabelle Gontran de la Baume-Pluvinel, who had it restored, and by her friend Augustine Bulteau.
He hosted the French poet Henri de Régnier, invited by the Countess de la Baume-Pluvinel, until a serious illness interrupted his stay in Venice. After the war Ca ‘Dario was bought by Charles Briggs, an American billionaire, who was forced to flee from Venice because of the constant rumors about his homosexuality, taking refuge in Mexico, where his lover committed suicide.
Long remaining without an owner, until 1964 the tenor Mario Del Monaco came forward among the possible buyers, but he broke the negotiations when, while he was going to Venice to complete the details of the contract, he was the victim of a serious car accident that forced a long rehabilitation and made him desist from the purchase. Years later Ca ‘Dario was bought by the Turin Count Filippo Giordano delle Lanze, who was killed inside the palace in 1970 by a Croatian sailor named Raul Blasich, with whom he had a relationship. Blasich later fled to London, where he was assassinated.
The palace was then purchased by Christopher “Kit” Lambert, manager of the rock band The Who, who fell in love with his romantic and melancholy appearance. In this environment his dependence on drugs worsened to such an extent as to undermine his relationship with the band in 1974, which caused his arrest for the possession of drugs and encouraged his financial collapse. He said he did not believe in the curse. , Lambert had confided to some friends he sometime would sleep in the kiosk of the gondoliers nearby Hotel Gritti to “escape the ghosts that haunted him in the Palace”.
In 1978, three years before his death, Kit Lambert sold Ca ‘Dario to a Venetian businessman, Fabrizio Ferrari, who moved there with his sister Nicoletta, who died in a strange road accident without witnesses.
Fabrizio Ferrari, after a short time, was involved in a financial crack and was also arrested on charges of beating a model
. At the end of the eighties the building was bought by the financier Raul Gardini, who wanted to give it to his daughter. Gardini, after a series of economic reverses and involvement in the scandal of Tangentopoli, committed suicide in 1993 in circumstances never fully clarified.
After the death of Gardini no one wanted to buy Ca ‘Dario, to the point that the first brokerage company that had received the mandate for sale surrendered and resumed the task. In the late nineties, director and actor Woody Allen seemed intent on buying the building, but desisted. In 2002, a week after having rented Ca ‘Dario for a holiday in Venice, bassist John Entwistle (The Who) died of a heart attack. In 2006 the property passed to an American company representing an unknown buyer and is currently undergoing restoration. ”
One historical guide says , the curse has seemed to befallen not just it’s owners, but anyone who has resided at Ca Dario for 20 days or longer, but points out, “if you have noticed the only murder in the palace is that of Count Filippo Giordano Delle Lanze and many bankruptcies but the malign influence seems to be able to act heavily on the physical and psychological level in retrospect.”