“Detourism: La newsletter di Venezia”, the official Town of Venice Tourism Office Newsletter, today takes us to discover the Arsenal of Venice! Enjoy your reading!
The Arsenale, a shipyard since 1104, is now primarily a cultural centre and event space
The Arsenale, surrounded by crenelated walls, is a fortified citadel consisting of boat sheds, warehouses, canals and basins, where for centuries the Serenissima produced its merchant vessels and war ships.
Heart of the economic, political and military power of Venice since 1104, the Arsenale soon became Europe’s greatest naval installation and a unique pre-industrial example of mass production. Here, highly skilled craftsmen and boat builders known as arsenalotti built ships as wells as ropes, sails, oars, artillery, using ground-breaking methods of unparalleled efficiency, considered as State secrets.
The arsenalotti were treated with great respect by the Government of the Serenissima, and were asked to perform very delicate tasks: they were responsible for guarding the Doges’ Palace during the meetings of the Great Council, the most important political body in the Republic.
Some of the most impressive buildings in the southern part of the Arsenale – such as Corderie, Artiglierie and Tese del Cinquecento – are now utilised by the Venice Biennale as exhibition spaces. Since 1980 the Arsenale has become an exhibition site of La Biennale, on the occasion of the 1st International Architecture Exhibition. The 17th International Architecture Exhibition will be open until 21 November 2021.
The North Arsenale, on the other hand, can be visited for free from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 3 pm. The opening to the public concerns the external spaces and the ground floor of Tesa 105 (shed). The other Tese of the North Arsenale and the Torre di Porta Nuova open to the public only during special events.
From November 1st 2021 you will also be able to visit the Padiglione delle navi (Ships Pavilion) – an annexe of the Naval History Museum of the Italian Navy – located in the ancient “oars workshop” of the Arsenale. If your are interested in visiting the areas of the Arsenale owned by the Italian Navy you can contact the Institute of Maritime Military Studies.
See what’s on in Venice Arsenale
[source: La newsletter di Venezia, N° 21/2021 del 14.10.2021]
[picture: Joseph Costa / Pixabay]
We are proud to publish some selected contents of such newsletter (see previous post: “Detourism for the Up and Down the Bridges“). On our website, in several episodes, we will only present some samples (see all posts in our archive page “Detourism Newsletter“), but the invitation addressed to all the friends of the Up and Down the Bridges is to subscribe to the newsletter directly.
Special thanks to the Councillor for Tourism for having enthusiastically welcomed this new important collaboration between TGS Eurogroup and the Tourism Office of the Town of Venice and for giving us the precious opportunity to publish on the pages of this blog some extracts from this newsletter, both in Italian and in English.
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