The residence of the Doge of Venice is one of the city's landmarks. The Palace contains a long series of institutional chambers decorated with paintings and sculptures by the greatest artists of the Renaissance. Staterooms housed major branches of the government such as Great Council, the Senate, as well as the administration of justice such as the Council of Ten.
The Republic of Venice did not have a formally written constitution, but its political and administrative systems proved very effective. From the mid 1300’s, the city was free from riots and no one questioned the rights of the ruling nobility.
The Doge's Palace is connected to the prison by a covered bridge with two separate corridors. The name of the Bridge of Sighs refers to the sighs of prisoners who, walking from the courtroom to the cell to serve their sentence, looked at freedom for the last time. The most famous prisoner here was Casanova. Without a trial, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Casanova is the only prisoner to escape from a prison in Venice.
