Palazzo da Mula Palace

Palazzo da Mula, a rare Gothic palace on Murano

The Palazzo da Mula, standing on the edge of Murano's Grand Canal, is among the few palaces on the island to have retained a façade still strongly marked by Venetian Gothic. It recalls a facet of Murano that is less visible today: alongside the glass furnaces and workshops, there were also dwellings belonging to Venetian patrician families, sometimes surrounded by gardens.

A rare testimony of Gothic Murano

The palace was remodeled several times, but its appearance mainly retains Gothic elements from the 15th and 16th centuries. Its brick façade is enlivened by pointed and polylobed windows, stone balconies, and several older decorative elements, including sculpted patere that refer to the Veneto-Byzantine tradition. The Da Mula family, which gave it its name, occupied the building in the modern era.

The memory of patrician residences

These properties could combine palaces, gardens, and direct access to canals. Most have disappeared or been profoundly transformed, which further increases the interest of the Palazzo da Mula today.

The building thus offers a rare point of comparison with the Gothic palaces of the Grand Canal, but in a much more intimate context. Its importance lies less in its monumentality than in its ability to convey a part of Murano's ancient residential landscape, long overshadowed by the almost exclusive image of the island of glassmakers.

Visit: the building occasionally hosts exhibitions and cultural activities. Interior access therefore depends on the program; the façade, on the other hand, remains easily visible from the fondamenta and alone constitutes an interesting stop during a walk on the island.