+PALACES AND HOUSES: VENICE.+ The northern cities, especially Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Bologna, and Venice, are rich in mediæval public and private palaces and dwellings in brick or marble, in which pointed windows and open arcades are used with excellent effect. In Bologna and Sienna brick is used, in conjunction with details executed in moulded terra-cotta, in a highly artistic and effective way. Viterbo, nearer Rome, also possesses many interesting houses with street arcades and open stairways or stoops leading to the main entrance. [Illustration: FIG. 156.--LOGGIA DEI LANZI, FLORENCE.] The security and prosperity of Venice in the Middle Ages, and the ever present influence of the sun-loving East, made the massive and fortress-like architecture of the inland cities unnecessary. Abundant openings, large windows full of tracery of great lightness and elegance, projecting balconies and the freest use of marble veneering and inlay--a survival of Byzantine traditions of the 12th century (see p. 133)--give to the Venetian houses and palaces an air of gayety and elegance found nowhere else. While there are few Gothic churches of importance in Venice, the number of mediæval houses and palaces is very large. Chief among these is the +Doge’s Palace+ (Fig. 157), adjoining the church of St. Mark. The two-storied arcades of the west and south fronts date from 1354, and originally stood out from the main edifice, which was widened in the next century, when the present somewhat heavy walls, laid up in red, white and black marble in a species of quarry-pattern, were built over the arcades. These arcades are beautiful designs, combining massive strength and grace in a manner quite foreign to Western Gothic ideas. Lighter and more ornate is the +Ca d’Oro+, on the Grand Canal; while the Foscari, Contarini-Fasan, Cavalli, and Pisani palaces, among many others, are admirable examples of the style. In most of these a traceried loggia occupies the central part, flanked by walls incrusted with marble and pierced by Gothic windows with carved mouldings, borders, and balconies. The Venetian Gothic owes its success largely to the absence of structural difficulties to interfere with the purely decorative development of Gothic details. [Illustration: FIG. 157.--WEST FRONT VIEW OF DOGE’S PALACE, VENICE.]