Giacomo Casanova is known worldwide as a ladies' man, but he was much more: a priest, a spy and a writer. He now has a museum dedicated to him in Venice.
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Casanova returns to Venice
Giacomo Casanova is known worldwide as a ladies' man, but he was much more: a priest, a spy and a writer. He now has a museum dedicated to him in Venice.
Image: picture-alliance/Isadora/Leemage
Young Giacomo
Born to actors on April 2, 1725, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova dreamed of becoming a doctor, but settled on studying law and theology. For a few years, he was a priest, which didn't keep him from chasing women, however. He also fell off the pulpit in church one day, drunk.
Nightly adventures
It's impossible to know how many times Casanova must have sped along Venice's alleys or rowed down its canals to visit the woman he favored. He always had to be discreet, since the ladies were often married.
Image: DW/Juan Martinez
The lover
Casanova came and went as he pleased in boudoirs across Europe. He simply adored women, from wealthy ladies to whores in brothels. The Venetian womanizer is said to have had 200 lovers. Unlike the poor cuckolded husbands who he was forced to duel, the women always forgave him.
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Manon Balletti
Manon Balletti was one of many women whose hearts Casanova broke. She was 17 and he was 30 when she fell in love with him. Hoping for marriage, she ditched her fiancé, sent Casanova 42 love letters and pawned a pair of diamond earrings to free him from prison. Casanova cheated on her during their entire three-year affair.
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Banished
In 1756, the city of Venice banned Casanova, who had just managed to escape from “The Leads” area of the Doge's palace, where he was imprisoned for blasphemy. He turned his back on the grand palaces, traveled widely across Europe and impressed kings and religious leaders with his sophisticated demeanor, all the while presenting himself as "Chevalier de Seingalt."
Image: Giacomo Casanova Foundation
A man of the world
The many exhibits at the new Casanova Museum give visitors an idea of the Venetian's many professions and callings: priest, violinist, soldier, spy and diplomat, writer and founder of the French lottery. He made a lot of money, and lost it just as quickly at the gambling table. Debt put him in jail many times, but it didn't tarnish his reputation.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L.Bruno
Bestselling author
In Bohemia, Casanova, 60 years old at the time, worked as a librarian. Lonely, bitter, depressed and plagued by syphilis, he dreamed of times long past. His doctor suggested writing about his adventures – and he did. His memoir, "The Story of my Life," became an international bestseller, even if it was published in a tamer version than the original for many years.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L.Bruno
Celebrating Casanova
Every year, 15 to 20 million tourists visit Venice, many of them interested in learning more about the life of Casanova. That gave Carlo Parodi (photo) the idea to dedicate a museum housed in a palazzo to the city's most famous son.
Image: Giacomo Casanova Foundation
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Venice has a new attraction that's sure to delight many tourists: the Casanova Museum and Experience.
Founder Carlo Parodi remembers noticing throngs of tourists wandering in search of a sign pointing out the house on Calle della Commedia where Giacomo Casanova was born on April 2, 1725. That gave him the idea to open a museum honoring the city's famous son, the first of its kind, in the city's grand Palazzo Pesaro Papafava.
Casanova was a great seducer of womenImage: picture-alliance/akg-images
The Venetian lover seduced many beautiful woman in palaces like the one that now houses an exhibition about him. He was, however, more than a notorious seducer of ladies.
The exhibition seeks to show Casanova as "the man beyond the myth." It gives viewers a glimpse of eighteenth-century Venice and shows what makes Casanova an "eclectic and complex character, even today," according to the museum's curator.
Casanova, Parodi says, was a great thinker, writer and philosopher who has unjustly gone down in history as a great seducer of women. The museum shines a light on the many other aspects of his personality, professions and callings. After all, he was a poet, writer, diplomat and secret agent.
Although no one knows where Casanova's is buried, his life philosophy remains alive today. As he once said: "I have loved women, even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better."
