Created in the palazzo of Senator Isacco Maurogonato Pesaro, a friend and collaborator of Manin in the government of the Republic of Venice, it was a hotel particular in the nineteenth century, along the lines of those in Paris, to which the family invited distinguished guests. Within these walls, in 1907, the aristocratic femme fatale Maria Nikolajewna O’Rourke Tarnowska instigated her young lover to murder her old betrothed husband, sparking the “Russian affair” that shocked and intrigued all Europe. The atmosphere, period furnishings and gentlemanly elegance of the ancient home, with the very popular bar dedicated to Tarnowska, remain unchanged.