DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0078
THE DOGANA.
Your mind is tossing on the ocean ;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,—
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood,
Or as it were, the pageants of the sea,—
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
That curt’sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Merchant of Venice.
This noble edifice was erected in the year 1682, after
the designs of Giuseppe Benoni. Its front is adorned
with a magnificent colonnade of marble pillars, and over
these rises a small but beautiful tower, the summit of
which supports a statue bearing a large golden globe, to
represent the world. Above the sphere stands a figure
of fortune, so placed as to turn with every change of the
wind, and thus teach the moral most necessary to the
frequenters of the Dogana. It is in this building that
the customs are paid by foreign ships and on merchan-
dize from abroad. A sort of council was early appointed
to assemble here, and take cognizance of every thing per-
taining to the commerce of the state ; but the structure
has lost much both of its importance and elegance ■, and
though it is still a beautiful and striking object when
observed from the sea, it owes its present interest prin-
cipally to the connexion of its design with the earlier
glory of the city.
The commerce of Venice is invested with a traditional
Your mind is tossing on the ocean ;
There, where your argosies with portly sail,—
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood,
Or as it were, the pageants of the sea,—
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
That curt’sy to them, do them reverence,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
Merchant of Venice.
This noble edifice was erected in the year 1682, after
the designs of Giuseppe Benoni. Its front is adorned
with a magnificent colonnade of marble pillars, and over
these rises a small but beautiful tower, the summit of
which supports a statue bearing a large golden globe, to
represent the world. Above the sphere stands a figure
of fortune, so placed as to turn with every change of the
wind, and thus teach the moral most necessary to the
frequenters of the Dogana. It is in this building that
the customs are paid by foreign ships and on merchan-
dize from abroad. A sort of council was early appointed
to assemble here, and take cognizance of every thing per-
taining to the commerce of the state ; but the structure
has lost much both of its importance and elegance ■, and
though it is still a beautiful and striking object when
observed from the sea, it owes its present interest prin-
cipally to the connexion of its design with the earlier
glory of the city.
The commerce of Venice is invested with a traditional