The Doge's Palace is built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Republic of Venice. It was built in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries.

In 810, Doge Agnello Participazio moved the seat of government from the island of Malamocco to the area of the present-day Rialto, when it was decided a ducal palace should be built. However, no trace remains of that 9th-century building.

The new Gothic palace's constructions started around 1340, focusing mostly on the side of the building facing the lagoon. Only in 1424 did Doge Francesco Foscari decide to extend the rebuilding works to the wing overlooking the Piazzetta, serving as law-courts, and with a ground floor arcade on the outside, open first-floor loggias running along the façade, and the internal courtyard side of the wing.

After a violent fire In 1483 in the side of the palace overlooking the canal. An important reconstruction would introduce the new Renaissance language to the building's architecture. An entire new structure was raised alongside the canal, stretching from the Ponte della Canonica to the Ponte della Paglia, with the official rooms of the government decorated with works commissioned from Vittore Carpaccio, Giorgione, Alvise Vivarini and Giovanni Bellini.

Another huge fire in 1547 destroyed some of the rooms on the second floor, but fortunately without undermining the structure as a whole. In the subsequent rebuilding work it was decided to respect the original Gothic style, despite the submission of neo-classical alternative designs by the influential Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. However, there are some classical features – for example, since the 16th century, the palace has been linked to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs.

As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city in 1797.

Since 1996, the Doge's Palace has been part of the Venetian museums network.

The oldest part of the palace is the wing overlooking the lagoon, the corners of which are decorated with 14th-century sculptures. The ground floor arcade and the loggia above are decorated with 14th- and 15th-century capitals.

The north side of the courtyard is closed by the junction between the palace and St Mark's Basilica, which used to be the Doge's chapel.

The rooms in which the Doge lived were always located in the area facing the lagoon. The core of these apartments forms a prestigious, though not particularly large, residence.

A corridor leads over the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1614 to link the Doge's Palace to the structure intended to house the New Prisons. Enclosed and covered on all sides, the bridge contains two separate corridors that run next to each other. That which visitors use today linked the Prisons to the chambers of the Magistrato alle Leggi and the Quarantia Criminal; the other linked the prisons to the State Advocacy rooms and the Parlatorio.

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