Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ca' d'Oro
( 041 520 03 45;
www.cadoro.org
; Calle di Ca' d'Oro 3932; adult/reduced €6/3; 8.15am-7.15pm
Mon-Sat, 9am-12.30pm Sun; Ca' d'Oro)
Along the Grand Canal, you can't miss 15th-century
Ca' d'Oro's lacy
arcaded Gothic facade
, resplendent even without the original gold-leaf de-
tails that gave the palace its name (Golden House). Baron Franchetti donated to Venice
this treasure-box palace packed with masterpieces displayed upstairs in
Galleria Franchetti
,
alongside Renaissance wonders plundered from Veneto churches during Napoleon's Italy
conquest.
Collection highlights include Titian's smouldering
Venus at the Mirror
(c 1550);
Mantegna's arrow-riddled
St Sebastian
; and Pietro Lombardo's chubby-kneed Jesus in
glistening Carrara marble that actually looks soft. Restorers work in the gallery, so you
might get to witness treasures painstakingly brought back to life before your eyes.
MUSEUM
THE ORIGINAL GHETTO
In medieval times this Cannaregio outpost housed a
getto
(foundry). But it was as the designated Jew-
ish quarter from the 16th to 18th centuries that this area gave the word a whole new meaning. In ac-
cordance with the Venetian Republic's 1516 decree, Jewish lenders, doctors and clothing merchants
were allowed to attend to Venice's commercial interests by day, while at night and on Christian holi-
days most were restricted to the gated island of
Ghetto Nuovo
. Unlike most European cities at the
time, pragmatic Venice granted Jewish doctors dispensation for consultations. In fact, Venice's Jewish
and Muslim physicians are credited with helping establish the quarantine on incoming ships that
spared Venice the worst ravages of plague.
When Jewish merchants fled the Spanish Inquisition for Venice in 1541, there was no place to go in
the Ghetto but up. Around
Campo del Ghetto Nuovo
, upper storeys housed new arrivals, syn-
agogues and publishing houses. Despite a 10-year censorship order issued by the church in Rome in
1553, Jewish-Venetian publishers contributed hundreds of titles popularising new Renaissance ideas
on religion, humanist philosophy and medicine. By the 17th century, Ghetto literary salons organised
by the philosopher Sara Copio Sullam, Rabbi Leon da Modena and others brought leading thinkers of
all faiths to the Ghetto.
After Napoleon lifted restrictions in 1797, some 1626 Ghetto residents gained standing as Venetian
citizens. However, Mussolini's 1938 race laws were throwbacks to the 16th century, and in 1943 most
Jewish Venetians were rounded up and sent to concentration camps; only 37 returned. Today few of
Venice's 400-strong Jewish community actually live in the Ghetto, but their children come to Campo
del Ghetto Nuovo to play, surrounded by the Ghetto's living legacy of bookshops, art galleries and re-
ligious institutions.
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