The Jewish Ghetto

Tucked away in the Cannaregio district is the Venetian Ghetto — the original ghetto, in fact. The word itself comes from the Venetian 'geto', referring to a foundry that once stood on the site, before the Venetian Republic established the area in 1516 as a mandatory, gated quarter for the city's Jewish population. It's the reason the word "ghetto" exists in every language that uses it today.

Walking through it now, the history is layered and quiet rather than monumental — narrow streets, tall buildings built upward rather than outward since the quarter couldn't expand its footprint, and several historic synagogues tucked into upper floors of otherwise unassuming buildings, each representing a different community that settled there over the centuries: German, Italian, Levantine, and Spanish congregations among them. It's a completely different register from the grandeur of St. Mark's or the Frari, but every bit as much a part of what Venice actually is.