Wagner museum

On February 13, 1995, the mezzanine floor room where the famous maestro lived and composed was entrusted by the Municipality to the Richard Wagner Association of Venice, chaired by Giuseppe Pugliese. Set up as a museum space, it is open to the public in perpetual memory of the musician and his love for the lagoon city. Since 2003, the adjacent rooms have also been used as a museum to house the Josef Lienhart collection, received as a donation: rare documents, posters, scores, autographed letters, paintings, records, lithographs, and various memorabilia. It is the largest private collection dedicated to the German composer outside of Bayreuth. A secluded place, far from the interferences of the world. Fleeing from daily anxieties and romantic storms, in search of a timeless space in which to bring a nameless inspiration back to light. Driven by an impulse for tranquility, Richard Wagner identified Venice as his oasis: “Living in large cities has become utterly unbearable to me, especially due to the noise of carriages, which drives me furious. Now, it is well known that Venice is the quietest, which is to say the least noisy city in the world, and this makes me absolutely resolve upon it,” he wrote in a letter to his father-in-law Franz Liszt before arriving for the first of his six Venetian stays, in August 1858. Returning from Palermo in April 1882, after completing the score of Parsifal for the second edition of the Bayreuth Festival scheduled for the summer of 1882, he sublet the entire mezzanine floor of Ca’ Vendramin Calergi from Count Bardi, who was often out of town. He took possession of it on September 16, returning for the last time to the lagoon city. Here he spent the winter with his family until his death on February 13, 1883. Today, several rooms of his apartment are used as a museum.