On December 29, 1720, Floriano Francesconi opened a two room coffee shop under the Procuratie Nuove in Piazza San Marco and named it Alla Venezia Trionfante, though everyone simply called it Florian. It was one of the only coffeehouses in Venice that let women inside, which drew Giacomo Casanova, and one of the few places to buy Gasparo Gozzi’s early newspaper, the Gazzetta Veneta, putting commuters in the same room as playwright Carlo Goldoni and Goethe.

In 1796 the Venetian State Inquisitors, fearful of French revolutionary ideas, forced the founder’s grandson Valentino Francesconi to close the café over its Jacobin patrons. After Napoleon’s army took Venice in May 1797, a sign celebrating Venice the Triumphant became dangerous, so he renamed it Florian. In 1848 its Senate Hall served as a headquarters for patriots rising against Austria, and the café became a temporary hospital during the fighting. An 1858 redecoration by architect Lodovico Cadorin added themed halls, and Giacomo Casa’s Senate Hall ceiling, with allegories of enlightenment and progress, carried hidden Masonic symbols.

• The Chinese Hall and Oriental Hall nodded to Venice’s trade with the East, with art by Antonio Pascuti.
• In 1872 the Hall of Illustrious Men added Giulio Carlini’s portraits of ten Venetians, including Marco Polo, Titian, and Palladio.
• In 1893 Riccardo Selvatico proposed an international art exhibition while dining in the Senate Hall, and it became the Venice Biennale.
• For its 200th anniversary in 1920, the café added the Art Nouveau Liberty Room with hand painted mirrors.
• Since 1988 its Temporanea program has brought contemporary artists into the halls during the Biennale, and a Florence branch opened on Via del Parione.