After getting off the vaporetto from Venice, visitors walk down the pier and through an imposing portal: the historical-archeological itinerary inside the walls of the Lazzaretto Nuovo is a guided tour through large spaces, both indoors and outdoors, that winds through monumental buildings and archeological excavations.
The monumental elements
The striking avenue of centuries-old mulberries, planted in the nineteenth century when it served as an Austrian military depot. The Tezon Grande, the largest historical building in the Laguna after the Corderie of the Arsenale, over a hundred meters long and the heart of the island’s activities over the centuries. The two ingenious Gunpowder Towers, the more important of the four remaining such structures in the laguna. The Venetian wells. The belvedere overlooking the barene.
The permanent collection
The gigantic Tezon Grande was the main building for storing and disinfecting ships’ cargoes during quarantine. Its walls offer a fascinating ethnographic glimpse of the events of the times and relations with the East, scrawled and drawn by the merchants in quarantine, as well as the guardians and the “bastazi” (longshoremen) of the Magistrate of Health, documenting the arrival of ships from various Mediterranean ports and the hive of activity the Lazzaretto once was.
The museum exhibits reflect the history of Venice, with special focus on the anthropological aspects of the city and the laguna’s past, and on the strategic role played by the lazzaretti in the Mediterranean and the world. The exhibits trace the evolution of the local area, from Roman times to the present day. They present the thousand years of Venice and the ingenious inventions of its citizens, displaying the most interesting relics unearthed during the archeological digs, which illustrate daily life in the different epochs; exploring the local traditions on fishing boats, using artisanal tools; showing what Venice is made of, thanks to a collection of marbles and cast iron objects, and how Venetians lived, in the anthropological section.
The temporary exhibits
The temporary exhibits are designed to examine the topics and activities the ecomuseum engages in in greater depth, and are then included in the permanent collection.
- 2020 La Litoteca: Venezia di pietra [The stone gallery: Venetian stone]
- 2019 Il Sentiero delle Barene [The Path of the Barene]
- 2016 Le Fortificazioni Veneziane [Venetian Fortifications]
- 2011 Venezia e la Peste: lettere, decreti, fedi di Sanità [Venice and the Plague: letters, decrees and health passports]
- 2010 Il Ferro in Laguna: le asce e gli strumenti che hanno costruito Venezia [Iron in the laguna; the axes and tools that built the city of Venice]
- 2009 Antropologia: lo scavo del Campo Santo [Anthropology: Excavating the Cemetery]
- 2008 Anfore: vino, olio, pesce lavorato, spezie, profumi nella Laguna di epoca antica [Amphorae: wine, oil, processed fish, spices and perfumes in the laguna in ancient times]
- 2007 Il Ferro in Laguna: Carpentieria, navigazione, pesca [Iron in the laguna: carpentry, navigation, fishing]
- 2007 Aspetti naturali dell’ambiente lagunare: le Barene [Aspects of natural habitats in the laguna: the Barene]
- 2004 Rotte mediterranee e baluardi di sanità: il gran fondaco delle Contumacie [Mediterranean trade routes and health centers: the great warehouse of Contumacy]
- 2002 The Barene. Aspects of natural habitats in the laguna.
- 2000 The island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. History, recovery, reuse
- 1998 The Torre Massimiliana of Sant’Erasmo