This corner of Cannaregio once housed getos (foundries), but its role as Venice's Jewish quarter from the 16th to 19th centuries gave the word new meaning.
In the 12th century, there were more than 1300 Jews living in Venice, in Giudecca and Mestre. From 1516 onwards, the Jewish community was restricted to the gated island of Ghetto Nuovo (New Foundry) and the world’s first "ghetto."
Campo del Ghetto Nuovo
Sit down in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, peppered with hobbling pensioners, kipper-crowned Lubavitchers (Orthodox Jews) and gun-slung security guards, and ponder the Ghetto’s extraordinary backstory. When Doge Leonardo Loredan decreed the founding of the world’s first Jewish Ghetto in 1516, it was in this very square that its first 700 families – mainly Ashkenazi Jews – settled.
While Jewish people had conditionally sojourned in Venice from at least the 12th century, Doge Loredan’s decree would usher in over three centuries of official segregation. Not that the Ghetto’s residents were completely excluded from Venetian life. Unlike most European cities of the era, pragmatic Venice granted Jewish communities the right to practice certain professions key to the city’s livelihood, including medicine, trade, banking, fashion and publishing. Ghetto residents were free to move around Venice during daylight hours but subject to a strict sunset curfew. At night, only Jewish doctors were permitted out of the quarter’s locked gates.
When Jewish merchants fled the Spanish Inquisition for Venice in 1541, there was no space left in the Ghetto to go but up – in buildings around Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, upper stories housed new arrivals, synagogues and publishing houses. As numbers grew, the Ghetto was extended, first into the Ghetto Vecchio (Old Ghetto) and then into the Ghetto Nuovissimo (Newest Ghetto). This would create the confusing situation where the older Jewish area is called the New (Nuovo) Ghetto and the newer is the Old (Vecchio) Ghetto.
The bronze Holocaust memorial panels in the square's northwest corner, by Lithuanian-Jewish artist Arbit Blatas, are based on sketches Blatas produced for the Emmy Award–winning TV mini-series Holocaust. In 1993, Blatas completed a second bas-relief memorial at the square's northern end. Titled L’Ultimo treno (The Last Train), it includes the names of the Venetian Jews deported in WWII.
Duck under the arched portico on the campo's east side to view the oft-missed Banco Rosso (Red Bank) sign. This was one of three color-coded pawn shops that operated in the Ghetto until the Venetian Republic’s fall, its name reputedly derived from the red receipt customers received when pawning an item.
Lastly, cast your eyes towards the square's southeast end to spot two of its three 16th-century synagogues. The first, recognizable by five long, arched windows, is the Scola Tedesca. To the left, a little wooden cupola marks the Scola Canton. Both are accessible through the unmissable Museo Ebraico.
Museo Ebraico
While the Ghetto was created as an act of segregation, over time it became a refuge in which Jewish culture and ideas thrived. It was the principal site of Hebrew publishing in Europe; Christians flocked to the Italian sermons of learned rabbi Leon da Modena, as well as rowdy Purim plays, and Ghetto literary salons attracted leading thinkers of all faiths.
This rich and influential legacy is explored at the Museo Ebraico. Scheduled to reopen in 2025 after a major renovation and expansion, its precious cache of Judaica includes original 15th-century parochets, finely worked silverware and early books published in the Ghetto during the Renaissance. A collection of rare textiles sheds light on the mastery of Venetian weavers and Jewish embroiders.
The revamped museum is also set to incorporate an original 16th-century Ghetto apartment, a museum library and a terrace overlooking Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. Visitors will have the choice of an audio guide or guided tour.
Campo Nuovo Synagogues
Borrowing from Venetian dialect, the Jews called their synagogues 'scole', and the Ghetto’s five scole reflect the quarter’s once-cosmopolitan diaspora. The newly extended museum now incorporates the oldest three, each constructed within exisiting buildings on Campo del Ghetto Nuovo.
The oldest is the Scola Tedesca, spiritual home of Venice’s German Ashkenazi community since 1528. By 16th-century Venetian law, only the German Jewish community could trade in money lending, and their success shows in the synagogue's handsome late-baroque decor. The lavish pulpit and carved benches downstairs are topped by a gilded, elliptical women’s gallery, modeled after a Venetian opera balcony.
Built by Jews driven out of France, the Scola Canton dates from c. 1531 but features gilded rococo interiors added in the 18th century. Though European synagogues typically avoid figurative imagery, this little diamond has eight charming landscapes inspired by biblical parables.
The Italians were the poorest in the Ghetto. Having fled largely destitute from Spanish-controlled southern Italy, they were restricted to mostly low-paying professions, including knife sharpeners, schmatte (rag traders) and pot, pan and heel repairers. Although their Scola Italiana was built on the cheap in 1575, it’s starkly beautiful, with elegantly carved woodwork and an original terrazzo floor uncovered during recent restoration works.
Ghetto Vecchio
Ponte del Ghetto Vecchio connects Ghetto Nuovo to Ghetto Vecchio. Here, the wealthy Sephardic community raised two synagogues. First was the Scola Levantina. Built in 1541, its 17th-century interiors are often attributed to Baldassare Longhena. Across Campo del Ghetto Vecchio is the second, Scola Spagnola, founded around 1580 and the Ghetto’s largest synagogue. Its current 17th-century incarnation reveals just how Venetian the community had become, with grand architectural flourishes that include high-arched windows, geometric repetition and exuberant baroque interiors in marble and chiseled wood. Both synagogues are still used – the cozier Scola Levantina in winter and the airier Scola Spagnola in summer. Ghetto walking tours organized by the Museo Ebraico usually include a visit to one of the two.
For more than 300 years, an orchard filled with vines and fig, olive and pomegranate trees stood behind the Scola Spagnola (accessible from Calle del Forno). The trees were all symbolic to Judaism, with their fruit used by the community in festivities. In 2018, the space was replanted with the Giardino Segreto(Secret Garden) of plants, trees and herbs mentioned in the Old Testament.
From the left of the Scola Spagnola, continue along Calle del Ghetto Vecchio to sample Jewish-Venetian sweets at Panificio Volpe. Just ahead at No. 1131 is an official 1704 decree of the Republic forbidding Jews who had converted to Christianity from entering the Ghetto, punishable by "the rope (hanging), prison, galleys, flogging…and other greater punishments, depending on the judgment of their excellencies (the Executors Against Blasphemy)." This was to prevent Jews from nominally converting to enjoy the freedom of Christians, while secretly continuing their Jewish observances. At the street's end, note the hinges that once supported the Ghetto Vecchio’s entry gates.
