Venice is a city known for its stunning art masterpieces and its architectural marvels, for its famous canals, for being the birthplace of Vivaldi and a haven for classical music and opera lovers. It is not widely known for its ghetto — and yet the very word itself comes from Venice. Prior to the 16th century, the Jewish quarter of Venice was a foundry, or in Italian, a getto. To control the spread of fire should one break out, the foundry was on an island bordered on all sides by canals. But in 1516, when the city became crowded with refugees after a war with the Papal States, it was decreed that Venice’s 1,000 Jews should all live together in one place — the old foundry island, where they could be locked in at night, though free to roam the city during daylight hours.
The ghetto still stands today, and though it’s obviously no longer mandatory, some 450 Jews live there and many more come to attend synagogues, study, and eat together at the ghetto’s excellent kosher restaurants. Though officially-designated Jewish quarters existed in Spain and elsewhere hundreds of years before Venice had one, when I visited Venice several weeks ago, I was curious to see what the place where the word “ghetto” was born looked like today. This is what I found.
From one of the bridges leading to the gheto vecchio, you can see the main campo.
When Jews from Spain and Portugal flooded into Venice to escape the Inquisition in 1541, the ghetto welcomed them with open arms — but soon ran out of space. The solution was to build higher, thus creating a neighborhood of medieval mini-skyscrapers.
The ghetto is tiny — little more than a cluster of buildings and alleys surrounding a campo or two — but people take full advantage of what open space is there.
There’s a Jewish rest home right on the campo, as well as several synagogues and a Jewish Museum (the Museo Ebraico).
There’s also a lot of good kosher food, including this fantastic pastry shop.
Did I mention it was tiny? Look at the shoulder room you get in this alley.
Ghetto residents could roam freely during the day but were locked in at night by walls and gates manned by Christian guards. Napoleon opened the gates and lifted all restrictions on Jews in 1797, and then Mussolini put them back in place in 1938. 1,670 Jewish Venetians were sent to concentration camps.
A section of the original wall remains, complete with Fascist-era barbed wire running atop it.
The scenes on the wall are somber reminders of what happened to many of the ghettos residents in WWII.
This was written on a wall not far away.
As was, somewhat more confusingly, this.
Like much of Venice, the first ghetto is both a fascinating piece of history and a still-living cultural center. If you have the chance to visit Venice, don’t miss it!
You can check out more Strange Geographies here.
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As always, Strange Geographies are the best features on Mental Floss. Thanks
posted by Tex on 5-23-2010 at 5:23 pm
When I was in Venice I stumbled upon a bar mitzvah celebration happening in the ghetto. The whole family was enjoying a meal at a long table right there in the campo. It was so picturesque that if you included the scene in a movie, people would say it was too perfect to be believed.
Thanks, Ransom, for stressing how important it is to get off the tourist trail!
posted by Miss Moneypenny on 5-23-2010 at 9:05 pm
“A morte il fascio”… online translators are telling me either “to death the beam” or “to death the bundle”, but a quick googling, and a youtube music video here implies that the meaning is a bit closer to “death to fascism.”
posted by Eli on 5-23-2010 at 9:47 pm
I wonder if the “Kurt saved us” graffito is some sort of sarcastic reference to Kurt Waldheim, his connection to the Wehrmacht in WWII, and some of his anti-Semitic actions while the UN Secretary-General.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 5-23-2010 at 10:25 pm
Nah, more likely some grunge kid’s nod to the lead singer of Nirvana — like the Kurt Cobain = Jesus Facebook page.
posted by VM on 5-23-2010 at 10:38 pm
Thanks again, Ransom, for a great take on the world not-so-around-us.
posted by Johnny Cat on 5-24-2010 at 12:36 am
As i recall, not only did they build the houses considerably higher in the ghetto but where there were high enough ceilings they also inserted extra floors, doubling the nuber of stories, to house as many people as they could.
posted by kojjjan on 5-24-2010 at 5:02 am
How about Kurt Vonnegut with Slaughter House 5?
posted by m on 5-24-2010 at 7:29 am
Fantastic post, thanks!! Venice seems beautiful, and the reminder that Vivaldi is from there really makes wish I had money to go.
posted by Christin on 5-24-2010 at 8:59 am
Makes me think of “The Merchant of Venice” & Shylock. I believe in Shakespeare’s time, they also made the Jewish citizens wear red hats when they were out of the ghetto during the day to identify themselves.
posted by Nerak on 5-24-2010 at 1:23 pm
I’m almost sure its referring to Kurt Russell i.e. Escape from New York :)
posted by mcoff on 5-24-2010 at 7:20 pm
Great as usual.
I’m sure you like to travel light, meaning…not carrying lots of equipment…but I’d be happy to loan you my shift lens next time you want to do architecture….That’s a big LOL…and another big THANKS for another great post.
posted by M. Forrest on 5-24-2010 at 7:25 pm
Yes, as ELI said “A morte il fascio†may be translated to “Death to fascism”.
The Fascio littorio is in fact an ancient roman symbol. it gave name to the Fascist party.
It’s like svastika for Nazis or sickle+hammer for comunists.
you can read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces
posted by Chube on 5-25-2010 at 12:34 pm
By the way, yes, Venice is really amazing.
If you ever have a chance to visit Italy don’t miss it!
posted by Chube on 5-25-2010 at 12:35 pm