Palazzo Grassi
Last updated on November 10, 2026Hours verified November 2026
Palazzo Grassi stands on the Grand Canal near Campo San Samuele, the last great palace built on the canal before the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. Since 2006 it has been one of the world's leading contemporary art museums, home to part of the personal collection of French businessman Francois Pinault, shown across roughly 5,000 square meters of galleries inside a meticulously restored 18th-century shell.
Challenge to visitors
It is not always open, and the opening is not seasonal. Palazzo Grassi shows temporary exhibitions, and the operator's hours are stated as applying during exhibition periods. Between shows there is no published opening at all, so the question is never "what time" but "is anything on".
Closed Tuesdays, like the Guggenheim and unlike the civic museums — Venice has no single museum closing day and this is the half of the city that shuts on a Tuesday.
And the content changes completely between visits. Someone who came for an installation two years ago and returns expecting the same building will find a different one; there is no permanent hang to fall back on here.
Visiting tips and strategy
When to go
Palazzo Grassi is quiet by Venetian standards. It draws an art audience rather than the general sightseeing flow, and even in high season the galleries rarely feel crowded -- a real contrast to anything on Piazza San Marco.
Because the programme is exhibition-led, the useful question is not when to arrive but what is on: shows run for months and the building closes between them for installation. Checking the current exhibition before planning a visit matters more here than choosing a time of day.
Like Punta della Dogana it generally closes on Tuesdays, which catches out visitors used to the Monday closures common elsewhere in Italy.
Getting the good version
Check what is on before anything else, then decide. This is the one major venue in Venice where the building alone is not a reason to buy a ticket — the rooms are deliberately neutral, and the exhibition is the whole proposition.
Arrive by water at San Samuele. The vaporetto stop is at the palace and the façade is built to be read from the canal — from the land side you approach a campo and a door.
Do it with Punta della Dogana, not instead of it. The same operator runs both and they usually show related material; the pair is a coherent afternoon, and the two buildings could hardly be more different — a formal palace and a customs shed.
Note the 17:00 last entry. It is an hour before closing, which is earlier than most Venetian museums cut off.
What it costs
Ticketed, and the operator publishes no tariff on its own site. Palazzo Grassi's practical information gives hours, addresses and vaporetto stops; the prices live on a separate booking platform rather than on any page of the museum's own.
What matters more than the figure is that admission is exhibition-linked. There is no permanent collection ticket here. When nothing is installed, nothing is sold.
A combined ticket with Punta della Dogana is the normal way in, since the two venues share an operator and usually share a programme — check the current offer at the box office rather than assuming the two are priced separately.
Membership exists for repeat visitors, which for a venue whose content turns over completely is a more sensible proposition than at a permanent museum.
Getting there and getting in
Admission: €20
Prices verified August 2026
Where it is
Campo San Samuele 3231, on the Grand Canal in San Marco. Vaporetto to San Samuele or Sant'Angelo.
Hours
During exhibition periods: daily 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:00. Closed Tuesdays and 25 December.
The operator states these hours apply during exhibitions and asks visitors to check the exhibition dates before coming. Between shows the venue has no published opening.
Tickets
Sold through the operator's booking platform rather than published on its own site; a combined ticket with Punta della Dogana is normally available.
The Teatrino
The operator also runs the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi at San Marco 3260, a separate auditorium used for talks and screenings — a different address from the palace itself.
How long
An hour to ninety minutes, depending entirely on what is installed.
Verified against Palazzo Grassi, August 2026.
Place accessibility
The operator publishes nothing about physical access, and its own accessibility page does not load. Palazzo Grassi links to a page on accessible guides and an Italian Sign Language presentation for its exhibitions; that link returns a 404 today. Recorded as a finding rather than filled in.
What is known is that the venue is a converted eighteenth-century palace, with galleries on more than one floor above a ground-level entrance from the campo. How those floors are reached is exactly what is not published.
The vaporetto helps. San Samuele lands at the palace, so the approach does not involve crossing a bridge — which in Venice removes the commonest obstacle before the building is even reached.
Not published, and not guessed: whether there is a lift, whether the entrance has a step, and whether the sign-language material is still offered. Contact the venue before travelling; the published accessibility route is currently broken.
Quick facts
- Type: Museum, Palace, Historic Place
- Local name: Palazzo Grassi (vedi la pagina italiana)
- Visitor access: Open to visitors
- Admission: €20
- Reservation: Not required — tickets on the door
- Typical visit: About 1 hour 30 minutes
- Built: 1748-1772
- Designed by: Giorgio Massari
- Architectural style: Venetian Classical
Where it is
Get directions Open in Apple Maps
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Visit responsibly
A combined ticket covers both Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, and the two sit at either end of the same stretch of the Grand Canal -- seeing them on one visit is both cheaper and a lighter load on the vaporetti than two separate trips.
The frescoed staircase and ceilings are original 18th-century surfaces sharing a building with contemporary installations, so photography rules vary room by room rather than applying across the museum: some individual works are restricted by the lending artist rather than by the building. The posted notice in each room is the one that applies.