The Galleria dell'Accademia displays the world's most important collection of paintings by the Venetian school in its monumental galleries on the Grand Canal. Masterpieces by Titian, Tintoretto, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Veronese and Tiepolo are hung on the walls of the former Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita', a prestigious, fraternal lay order that is an integral part of Venice's illustrious history.

A Renaissance church and a monastery built by the celebrated architect, Andrea Palladio, are also enclosed within the Galleria dell'Accademia. In the early 19th century, this complex was used to store the artistic heritage of Venice after the suppression of its monasteries, churches and guilds under Napoleonic and Austrian rule. It opened as a public museum in 1866.

The museum's collection spans five centuries, and covers the Medieval, Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Giovanni Bellini's mesmerizing "Enthroned Madonna" and Veronese's immense canvas of the "Feast in the House of Levi" are alone worth the price of admission to the Galleria dell'Accademia, a must-see on any visit to Venice.