Loredan (noble family)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of the Loredan

Loredan is the name of a Venetian patrician family that belonged to the Grand Council of the Republic of Venice . From 1297 onwards there was the serrata , the closure of the Great Council . She hired three Doges from Venice . The family is therefore counted among those 16 families that are referred to as the "ducal houses" (case nuove ducali) , although of course they did not have this rank hereditary, but only in the respective person of the elective duke (see: patriciate of Venice ).

The Loredan were first mentioned in Venice in 1015. They worked as merchants, diplomats and the military. One family member, Donata, was Marco Polo's wife .

history

The family is one of the oldest in the city of Venice . Possibly it comes from Loreo , a derivation from Laureati that was occasionally put forward later seems legendary.

The admiral Pietro Loredan (1372-1438) defeated the Turkish fleet in 1416 in the naval battle at Gallipoli and the Genoese fleet in 1431 at Rapallo. He was the leader of the opposition to the Doge Francesco Foscari and his offensive policy to expand the Terraferma in northern Italy.

Leonardo Loredan (by Giovanni Bellini , 1501)

Leonardo Loredan († 1521), was Doge of Venice from 1501 to 1521. During his time there were numerous armed conflicts. He had the republic against an alliance between King Ludwig XII. of France, Pope Julius II , Emperor Maximilian I , Ferdinand II of Aragón and some small Italian states, which was financed by funds from the Fuggers . Loredan invested considerable family funds in arming the Venetian troops. Through a clever policy of alliances he managed to get some of Venice's possessions on the Terraferma , but the power of Venice was broken, the city republic was over-indebted and its trade routes were marginalized by the discovery of America. His portrait of Giovanni Bellini (1501) is well known. From 1481 he financed the construction of the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi .

In 1534 the family bought the village of Barban in Istria, which they used as their summer residence.

The family provided two other doges: Pietro Loredan (from 1567 to 1570), who was elected at an advanced age and under whose brief reign the economic situation of Venice deteriorated dramatically, and Francesco Loredan , during his tenure (from 1752 to 1762) the republic experienced a brief heyday, as the Venetians, because of their neutrality during the Seven Years' War , were able to trade almost unrivaled in Europe. During this time the Loredan family had legendary wealth and owned numerous palazzi. Casanova was locked in the notorious lead chambers under Francesco Loredan's government in 1755 for suspicious activities , from which he managed his spectacular escape . The atmosphere of the time is reproduced in color and in detail in many pictures by Pietro Longhi , Francesco Guardi , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Rosalba Carriera .

The branch of Santo Stefano died out with Girolamo Loredan in 1750, the branch of San Vio still exists today. The Counts Loredan Moretti run a winery in Selva di Montello .

Great personalities

The Loredan provided three Doges of Venice :

as well as a number of other well-known personalities:

Possessions

The family built or acquired a number of city palaces (often named after the parishes) in Venice over the centuries, as well as in the wider region, including:

literature

  • Andrea Da Mosto : I Dogi di Venezia. Florence 1983.
  • Helmut Dumler: Venice and the Doges. Düsseldorf 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: Histoire de ma fuite des prisons de la République de Venise qu'on appelle les Plombs. Ecrite a Dux en Boheme l'année 1787 . Leipzig 1788
  2. ^ Website of the Countess Nicoletta Loredan Moretti's winery in Selva di Montello

Web links

Commons : Loredan  - collection of images, videos and audio files