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The ninth congress of Italian scientists was held in Venice. For this occasion Prince Andrea Giovanelli, the chairman of the congress, had the family palazzo at San Fosca refurbished from its basement to the attic in order to give a proper welcome to the delegates. The restoration work was given to Giovanni Battista Meduna, who had become the city's leading architect after he and his brother Tommaso rebuilt La Fenice in 1837 following a fire in 1836.
Apart from reintroducing decorative motifs from the sixteenth century, in the palazzo Meduna also used Gothic features, not the least to stay in keeping with the architecture of the building itself, which dates from the fifteenth century. One Gothic touch was the spiral staircase.
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