The Sotoportego de Gheto Novo is the low, dark stone tunnel that serves as the primary entrance to the island of the first Jewish ghetto. Above the passageway, the building rises seven stories high, dwarfing almost every other structure in…
Cannaregio Jewish Ghetto
This walk takes you through the world's oldest Jewish Ghetto, exploring its towering tenement buildings, historic synagogues, and quiet canals. You'll gain a poignant understanding of community resilience, religious history, and cultural preservation in Venice.
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1. Sotoportego de Gheto Novo
2. Ponte de Gheto Novo
The Ponte de Gheto Novo is a small, single-span bridge made of stone and iron that connects the mainland of Cannaregio to the island of the first Jewish Ghetto. For centuries, this bridge served as one of the few entry points to an area…
3. Campo di Ghetto Nuovo
The Campo di Ghetto Nuovo is a large, open square surrounded by unusually tall buildings that tower over the rest of Venice. In fifteen sixteen, the Venetian Senate ordered all Jews to move to this small island, which was previously an…
4. Banco Rosso
The Banco Rosso in the Cannaregio district is identified by the striking red marble wall that lines the canal edge. This deep crimson stone once marked the site of a government-run pawn shop established in the sixteenth century. Venetian…
5. Great German Scola
The Great German Scola sits behind a plain white facade on the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, marked by the five high, arched windows that illuminate the prayer hall inside. Built in fifteen twenty-eight, this was the first synagogue established…
6. Monumento Vittime della Shoah - Arbit Blatas -
Seven bronze panels are fixed to the brick wall of the old Jewish Ghetto in Venice. They were cast by the Lithuanian sculptor Arbit Blatas, who lived through the trauma of the occupation himself. These reliefs depict the deportation of…
7. Ponte de Ghetto vecchio
The Ponte de Ghetto Vecchio is a stone bridge with iron railings that crosses the Cannaregio Canal, marking the historic entrance to the world’s first Jewish Ghetto. In fifteen sixteen, the Venetian Senate ordered all Jewish residents to…
8. Sinagoga Spagnola
The Spanish Synagogue in the Venice Ghetto features a tall, cream-colored facade with four arched windows that overlook the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo. Built in the late sixteenth century, it served the Sephardic Jews who arrived in Venice…
9. Sinagoga Levantina
The Levantina Synagogue displays a facade of pale stone with tall, arched windows that overlook the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo. Built in the late sixteenth century by merchants from the Ottoman Empire, it features an interior designed by the…