Castello is Venice’s largest and most Western neighbourhood. It features tourist areas, such as ‘Riva degli Schiavoni’ (a popular waterfront promenade) and Biennale Gardens, as well as residential quarters, where local people live and work, away from the crowds.
The tour across Castello will take you to the neighbourhood’s historical landmarks, such as Venice’s huge shipyard, which is known as ‘The Arsenal’.
The Arsenal played a key role in the history of Venice as maritime republic. At the Arsenal, naval ships were built and repaired for the Serenissima to develop and maintain its dominion over sea trade routes. The Arsenal was divided into a number of districts, including areas for workers and port personnel to live. Land and sea armaments were also manufactured, as part of the shipbuilding industry.
The Naval History Museum (Museo Storico Navale), which is the second tour destination, is located in one of Venice’s oldest granaries, within the Arsenal compound. The Museum was established a century ago and it has become the most remarkable institution of the kind in Italy. Ship relics and prototype vessels from the times of the Republic of Venice, and the years of foreign occupation, to the more recent Italian Navy are exhibited in forty rooms on five levels. Through the Museum, you will then enter the ‘Ships Pavilion’, located in an old wooden oar factory, where civil and military vessels of historical value are displayed.
After visiting the Naval History Museum and the Ship Pavilion, the tour will take you for a Castello’s cultural walk. This will include an outdoor visit to the magnificent churches and squares that have marked the history of local communities and defined people’s spirituality through the growth and decline of the Republic of Venice until today.
Castello’s tour is an excellent opportunity to gain an insight into the socio-economic foundations of Venice’s prosperity and artistic splendour for over a thousand years.