Description
The Ghetto of Venice, in the Cannaregio district, is the quarter where, from 1516, the city's Jews were obliged to live. From here the name spread across the world, and it is still the focus of the Venetian Jewish community, with synagogues and religious institutions.
You enter by two bridges, because the Ghetto Nuovo is a sort of island. At the center is a large campo, with three wells that still bear the coat of arms of the Da Brolo, the family who wanted to build houses here in the fifteenth century.
Not to be missed are the synagogues, the "scole": one for each group of origin, German, Canton, Levantine, Spanish, Italian. Together they form an architectural complex of great interest.
The Jewish Museum tells the history and traditions of the community. In the campo there are also the Holocaust memorials by Arbit Blatas, which remember those who were deported.
Another thing that strikes you is the height of the houses. Space was scarce and the community was growing, with arrivals from all over Europe: so they built upward, and the houses of the Ghetto, uniquely in Venice, reach as many as eight floors.
Before being a Jewish quarter, this was the site of the public foundries for bombards. One of the theories on the origin of the word "ghetto" ties it precisely to the Venetian "geto", the casting of metals.
On March 29, 1516, the Senate decided, by 130 votes to 44, that all Jews had to live in the Ghetto Nuovo. At night the gates were closed, and boats of the Serene Republic patrolled the canals.
The quarter was enlarged twice, with the Ghetto Vecchio in 1541 and the Ghetto Novissimo in 1633. Inside, people lived on medicine, the sale of second-hand goods and pawnbroking, an activity forbidden to Christians, also recalled in "The Merchant of Venice".
The gates were removed in 1797, with Napoleon's arrival, and with them the obligation to reside there.
You enter by two bridges, because the Ghetto Nuovo is a sort of island. At the center is a large campo, with three wells that still bear the coat of arms of the Da Brolo, the family who wanted to build houses here in the fifteenth century.
Not to be missed are the synagogues, the "scole": one for each group of origin, German, Canton, Levantine, Spanish, Italian. Together they form an architectural complex of great interest.
The Jewish Museum tells the history and traditions of the community. In the campo there are also the Holocaust memorials by Arbit Blatas, which remember those who were deported.
Another thing that strikes you is the height of the houses. Space was scarce and the community was growing, with arrivals from all over Europe: so they built upward, and the houses of the Ghetto, uniquely in Venice, reach as many as eight floors.
Before being a Jewish quarter, this was the site of the public foundries for bombards. One of the theories on the origin of the word "ghetto" ties it precisely to the Venetian "geto", the casting of metals.
On March 29, 1516, the Senate decided, by 130 votes to 44, that all Jews had to live in the Ghetto Nuovo. At night the gates were closed, and boats of the Serene Republic patrolled the canals.
The quarter was enlarged twice, with the Ghetto Vecchio in 1541 and the Ghetto Novissimo in 1633. Inside, people lived on medicine, the sale of second-hand goods and pawnbroking, an activity forbidden to Christians, also recalled in "The Merchant of Venice".
The gates were removed in 1797, with Napoleon's arrival, and with them the obligation to reside there.