Giovanni Battista Meduna

[11][12] He was lieutenant of the Guardia Civica during the 1848–1849 revolutions, a member of the Comitato Segreto di Venezia at the time of the Italian Risorgimento against the Austrian Empire, working in connection with the municipal council not recognized by Austria.

He is most notable for rebuilding the Gran Teatro La Fenice, destroyed by the fire of 1836, and the restoration of other buildings such as the Ca' d'Oro, St Mark's Basilica and the church of San Silvestro.

[11][12][20][21][22][23]His works include: While Meduna won the praise of notable architects such as Eugène Viollet-le-Duc,[23] he was also criticized for a heavy-handed approach to reconstructive neo-Gothic modernization rather than restorative conservation.

His invasive restoration of St Mark's Basilica fuelled controversy and debate, and in the case of the early 15th-century Ca' d'Oro, his damaging transformation even led to imprisonment on charges of vandalism.

[24][25] Meduna himself commented on the restoration (demolition) of his own house at San Fantin (1846) as follows:[23] Even though some might now feel the stirrings of warm affection for genuine things, and attempt to conserve the original parts of ancient buildings in renovating them, nonetheless a great many were destroyed, including some of considerable merit, so that hardly any trace remains of that Architecture which might almost be called national, and which was certainly quite widespread.