An entrance tax of 5 euros for tourists wishing to visit Venice is in place from this Thursday, April 25. Few years ago, Woody Allen was close to moving to the Italian city. But a horrible discovery made the famous director give up.
In the late 1990s, Woody Allen made his film Everyone says I love you to Venise. This shoot made the director want to buy a house. He then fell madly in love with a old palace from the 15th century, Palazzo DarioGothic building on the banks of the Grand Canal.
But Woody Allen finally decided to retract. He got scared because he learned about the history of the Palazzio Dario. And what he discovered sent shivers down his spine: this building would be cursed. For 500 years, all the owners of the Palazzio Dario have suffered a tragic fate.
Several sordid stories
This curse began with the daughter of Giovanni Dario, the builder of the palace. After inheriting the building, her husband was stabbed to death and she committed suicide. Shortly after, their son was also murdered. The next owner, an Armenian diamond merchant, ended up penniless… like his successor, a rich English antiques dealer.
The latter then resold the American billionaire Charles Briggs palace. Following revelations about his homosexuality, he fled to Mexico where his lover committed suicide. Because of this accumulation, the Palazzio Dario is remained uninhabited for half a century. The famous tenor Mario Del Monaco finally decided to buy it in 1964.
But while going there to sign the deed of sale, he was the victim of a car accident and therefore gave up. A Turin art collector became the owner of the place. He is killed there with a statuette by his lover. Then, Kit Lambert, the manager of the Who, decided to buy the “cursed palace”. But for fear of the curse, he did not live there and moved to the hotel next door. He ended up selling it.
Another tragic ending…
A few days after the sale, Kit Lambert is died from a fall down a staircase, pushed by his cocaine dealer. In 1980, a Venetian businessman bought the building with his sister. The latter died immediately in a car accident. The future owner, a wealthy entrepreneur, ended up committing suicide in 1993, mired in a slush fund affair.
We understand better why Woody Allen gave up. For the Venetians, this curse comes from the choice of location for this palace, which would have been erected on an ancient tomb of the Templars. Since then, it is no longer inhabited but rented from time to time. In 2002, the Palazzio Dario hosted Who bassist John Entwistle. A week later, he died, struck by a heart attack.
He should have read the mosaic on the facade of the Palazzio Dario: “urbis genio joannes darius“(in French: “glory to the genius of Giovanni Dario”). And whose perfect anagram is “sub ruina insidiosa genero” (in French: “he who lives here will go to his doom”).
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