The Porta della Carta, the main gateway…
1438 CE
The Porta della Carta, the main gateway of the Palazzo Ducale, the official residence in Venice of the doges, the elected leaders of the Venetian republic, is designed by Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon (Buon) and begun in 1438.
Venetian nobleman and admiral Pietro Loredan has meanwhile become one of the city's popular heroes.
As captain of the Venetian fleet he had defeated the Ottoman Turks, who had been threatening Venetian shipping, in a decisive battle near Gallipoli in June 1416.
His sound naval strategy had led to the defeat of the fleet of the rival city of Genoa, near Rapallo, in 1431.
Five years later he had been general of the republic in its war against the Marchese of Mantua.
Elected generalissimo in 1438, he reconquers the Venetian fortresses along the Po River, ensuring Venice's dominance in that area.