The building that encloses the far end of the Piazza San Marco is known as the Napoleonic Wing. The design and early building works date from the period when Venice was part of the Kingdom of Italy (1806–1814), in which Napoleon was represented by the vice-regent Eugène de Beauharnais. The two long wings that run the length of the Square are the Procuratie Vecchie and the Procuratie Nuove, which had housed the offices and residences of some of the main individuals of the Venetian Republic.
The design and initial building work on the Napoleonic Wing dates from the years when Venice was part of the Kingdom of Italy (1806-1814) of which Napoleon was sovereign and his stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais, was Viceroy. The site had previously been occupied by the San Geminiano Church – an ancient foundation that had been rebuilt in the mid-16th century by Jacopo Sansovino – and ran between the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, the two long arcades of buildings which extend the length of St. Mark’s Square and had housed the offices and residences of some of the most important political authorities of the Venetian Republic.
