The Ca' d'Oro (House of Gold) is one of showpiece palaces along the Grand Canal and has its own vaporetto stop, which this photo shows along with the Grand Canal side façade of this Venetian Gothic house. The house was commissioned by Marino Contarini in 1420. The architects were Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon (father and son) as with the west façade of the Doge's Palace.
The façade is divided in two parts, the completely enclosed right-hand side and the open left-hand side. This asymmetry was explained by Herbert Pothern in "Architectural Styles" (English translation of Das Grosse Buch der Baustile: 1979, Südwest Verlag, München) that the original plan (illustration given on p. 68 of the book) was symmetrical, that is, the present left-hand side is in the center surrounded by the enclosed walls with windows (the present right-hand side) on both sides, but only the central and the right-hand sides were built. This point is contested by Jan-Christof Rössler in his account of Ca' d'Oro.
The ground and first floors of the open left-hand side are similar to the arrangement seen in the Doge's Palace. In Ca' d'Oro, the colonnaded ground floor, which forms a portico, is topped by two more floors of loggia, open-sided gallery. The first floor (piano nobile) and the second floor gallery have quatrefoil tracery.
