Tucked away inside a little courtyard, at the end of a narrow street that runs parallel to Campo Manin, is the striking and extraordinarily elegant Scala Contarini del Bovolo. It is one of the finest examples of the transition from the Venetian Gothic style, which was dominant in the local culture, to Renaissance architecture.
In the late 1400's, Pietro Contarini added an extension to his late-Gothic palace of St. Paternian. This new section, probably the work of Giovanni Candi, was designed to upgrade the aesthetics of the palace's internal façade that faced a small courtyard, once protected by a wall.