The Ghetto

You have walked through a sotoportego, a covered passage beneath the houses, and onto an island. On 29 March 1516 the Venetian Senate decreed that the city's Jews must live here, on an islet ringed by canals that had once held a public foundry. In Venetian the foundry was the geto, from gettare, to pour or cast metal. From this corner of Cannaregio came the word "ghetto", now used in every language.

1An island with gates

Two gates were locked at dusk and opened at dawn. The guards were Christians, and the Jewish community had to pay them. By day Jews could go out to work, mostly in trade, moneylending and second-hand clothing. With no room to spread outwards, the Ghetto grew upwards: that is why the houses have so many floors and such low ceilings.

The area was enlarged with the Gheto Vecchio (1541), where Levantine merchants settled, and the Gheto Novissimo (1633). German, Italian, Levantine and Sephardic Jews lived side by side, each with their own synagogue, called a scola in Venice. From outside you can barely make them out, as they sit on the upper floors of ordinary buildings.

2Memory

The gates were torn down in 1797, when the Republic fell. On the wall are Arbit Blatas's reliefs and the names of the Venetian Jews deported during the Nazi occupation. The community is still very much alive: please be respectful.

3What to look for

• The height of the houses, with windows packed floor upon floor.
• The three wellheads in the campo.
• The Holocaust memorial, with its bronze reliefs.