Amazon Billionaire’s Wedding at 700-Year-Old Venice Synagogue Sparks Global Uproar—Historic Venue Shrouded in Mystery, Celebrity Guest List Exposed, Secret Rituals, and Fierce Backlash Over the Lavish Ceremony Ignite Heated Debate: Is This a Celebration of Love or a Scandalous Power Move?

The old building in the center of Venice, where Jeff Bezos will celebrate his wedding to Lauren Sanchez, was once a gathering place for Venice’s richest and most influential people.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, will marry Lauren Sanchez during June 24-26 in Venice, Italy. The two will enter the hall at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia (Society of Mercy), which was once one of the most magnificent buildings of the Renaissance.

The building was built in 1310 next to the church, which was once the synagogue of one of the seven great congregations in Venice at the time. These are major charitable and religious organizations, whose members are the city’s wealthiest and most influential citizens.

The building was then redesigned by the famous architect Jacopo Sansovino in 1532. The building has a quadrilateral structure influenced by the Roman Catholic basilica, but still maintains the traditional elegant model of the headquarters of the association in Venice.

The interior is decorated with frescoes by Renaissance masters such as Veronese, Tintoretto, Zanchi, and Pellegrin. The building continued to be completed 200 years later when the Republic of Venice collapsed. The country existed for a millennium, from the end of the 7th century to 1797.

The collapse of the Republic of Venice caused the association to leave the Scuola Grande della Misericordia. Since the beginning of the 19th century, it has been used by the military, then used as a warehouse and finally under the management of the National Archives.

The building is two floors high, the first floor is 46.3 m long, 19.32 m wide, 10.18 m high, divided into three compartments by a row of double columns, the middle compartment is 8.38 m long. The second floor is 49.15 m long, 20.95 m wide and 12.5 m high, with no columns or partitions. The venue is rented out for events and exhibitions, with a capacity of up to 1,000 people.

A-list guests such as actress Eva Longoria, singer Katy Perry, Kardashian family members, who just attended Sanchez’s bachelorette party in Paris, are expected to be present at the wedding.

Ivanka Trump and her husbands, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend, Bettina Anderson, are also expected to attend. The cost of organizing the event can be up to 10 million USD.

Last year, Ms. Sanchez said that although the wedding had an extravagant element, herself, like any other bride, constantly sought inspiration for wedding dress design through photos online.

“I’m just like every other bride,” she said.

Mr. Bezos, 61, and Ms. Sanchez, 55, publicly dated in 2019 after the Amazon billionaire divorced his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie. Sanchez was born in 1969 in the United States, is an actor, MC and owner of an aerial film studio. She went through two marriages and had three children before dating Bezos.

The two got engaged in 2023, then held a party on a $500 million yacht on the shores of the Amalfi Sea in August of the same year.