The San Gallo Hotel is located in a small characteristic campo (square), called San Gallo or Rusolo, which has an ancient well and curb and is very close to St Mark’s Square (50 metres). This is the area where the ORSEOLO family estate stood in the Tenth Century; one member of this ancient noble family, Pietro I Orseolo, was elected Doge (chief magistrate) between the years 976 and 978.

The area was also used as a refuge for pilgrims from the Holy Land, and was later turned into a hospice for poor women (who were called the “Orsoline”).  Evidence of this is shown by the small Church of the Oratorio San Gallo which was reduced to its present size in 1703. 
  
Next to this, the modern building of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro now stands on the site which used to be the Casa dei Francesconi, where the famous sculptor Antonio CANOVA died in 1822.  As far back as the beginning of the 1800s, the San Gallo Hotel was mentioned in the main guides of the time as a peaceful refined hotel.  The building shows a combination of sixteenth and nineteenth century styles, and was completely renovated in 1995.