The Ghetto of Venice is the ancient Jewish quarter in the center of the city, as well as the first ghetto in Europe.

To makes it unique, in addition to its tall buildings characterized by warm and welcoming colors, are the five synagogues that are concentrated there, two of which are open to the public, and in which religious services and ceremonies are celebrated to this day. The Ghetto still hosts all the religious and administrative institutions of the Jewish Community of Venice.

The Jewish Museum is temporarily closed for renovation, but it is possible to visit the Ghetto in complete autonomy, thanks to a multilingual application, also purchasable on Venezia Unica, which will guide you through the history, the historic buildings, including five synagogues, the study buildings, the so-called Midrashim and the ancient oven.

CAMPO DI GHETTO

In Venice, all open spaces and squares surrounded by buildings are called fields, and in fact these areas were used to grow vegetables as in the countryside. The ghetto camp is surrounded by the Jewish retirement home, some kosher places, the German and Italian synagogues, and tall buildings with private apartments. In the field there are three fifteenth-century wells, two of pink Verona marble and one of Istrian stone. On the façade of the old people's home there are some bronze bas-reliefs, the work of the Lithuanian sculptor Arbit Blatas, in memory of the Shoah: two were installed in 1980 and a third, entitled "The Last Train", was placed in 1993, on the fiftieth anniversary of the deportation of the Jews from the Venice ghetto. Venice had become the centre of trade between the East and the West, and the Jews became merchants of cloth and resellers of second-hand clothes and objects, increasingly known above all for their established activity as "free rate" money lenders since the 14th century. They were educated people, unlike the Christians, who were mostly illiterate at the time.

LEVANTINE SYNAGOGUE

The Levantine Synagogue was built in the Old Ghetto in the second half of the XVI century by Jews coming from the East, mostly merchants and wayfarers. La Serenissima had granted them the right to reside in the city and to build a holy building apart from the others and, in some manner, privileged. Tradition sets the date of foundation of the Levantine Synagogue in 1538, but it most likely dates to the following decade.
The merchants wanted their temple to stand out also for size and visibility, so that it could show the wealth of their Community, as well as reflect the eastern taste for grandiosity. It is, in fact, the only building that compared to the generically popular typology of ghetto constructions, boasts a prominent external architecture. One façade of the Levantine Synagogue is oriented towards the Campiello delle Scuole, while the other looks onto Calle di Ghetto Vecchio and is characterised by the presence, on the second floor and between the tall windows with semi-circular arch, of a lovely protruding aedicule, known as the “liagò”, which recurs in Venetian architecture and that we also find in other Scholas.
To date, being the only one equipped with a heating system, this Synagogue is used by the Venetian community in the winter period.

SPANISH SYNAGOGUE

The great synagogue of the Western Nation was the last of the synagogues of Venice to be founded in the Old Ghetto. It is the main Synagogue of the Venetian Jewish Community and it is used for most of the year, both on Saturday and for the main festivities.
The date of its foundation is not known with certainty, but it seems its official opening dates to 1584 circa. Originally, the Spanish Synagogue was smaller than it currently is, though it also had a women’s gallery.
Around the year 1660, the Western Community began to purchase several buildings adjoining their temple so that they could enlarge it, effectively becoming the city’s largest.
The external elevation of the tall building is simple and characterised by four large arched windows that rise over a marble plaque dedicated to the Jewish victims of the death camps.

ITALIAN SYNAGOGUE

The Schola Italiana can be recognised in the square of Ghetto Nuovo for the five large windows surmounted by a crest with the writing, “Holy Italian Community 1575” and for the cupola that towers over the Bimah or Tevà, which is to say the pulpit. On the rose façade you will note a little projecting temple on the first floor, which does not belong to the Synagogue and, on the ground floor, the little loggia that survives the arcaded structure typical of the Ghetto and common to most of northern Italy. The passageways that pass beneath buildings and are known as sottoporteghi indeed afforded shelter from bad weather to trade and negotiations.
Born as a readjustment to a pre-existing dwelling, the Synagogue was initially located on the first floor of the building and then, with time, transferred to the top floor, but in any event maintaining access via the original entrance. The Schole (Synagogues) were usually inserted and concealed among the houses so as not “to cause scandal to Christianity”, as prescribed by the Condotte of the Most Serene Republic.
Today, the ground floor, beneath the Schola Italiana, hosts a hotel, and it is fascinating to imagine falling asleep knowing that you have a Synagogue over your head.
The current look of the interior of the Italian Synagogue dates back to the last radical restoration that gave a neoclassical harmony to the entire structure. It is open to the public on Friday mornings or booking a private guided visit.

JEWISH HOLIDAYS 2025

APRIL
PESACH: 13 April / 14 April
PESACH: 19 April / 20 April
JUNE
SHAVUOTH: 2 June / 3 June
AUGUST
15 di AV: 9 August
SEPTEMBER
ROSH HASHANA': 22 September / 23 September / 24 September
OCTOBER
YOM KIPPUR: 1 October / 2 October
SUKKOT: 7 October / 8 October / 11 October
SIMCHAT TORA': 14 October / 15 October
DECEMBER
CHANUKKÀ: 25 December

Visit with App to the Ghetto of Venice - REDUCED ticket (RESIDENTS and BORN in Venice)