Lazzaretto Nuovo

The island also known in ancient times as “Vigna Murada” is located in the northern lagoon and was an important quarantine station of the Republic of Venice for the plague of the 15th century. The island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, mysterious and half hidden by vegetation, is one of the great historical sites of Venice, second only to the Doge’s Palace and on a par with the Arsenale construction site for those interested in the illustrious Venetian past of building the empire. The first hospital (the name derives from the biblical resurrected Lazarus) was built on an island off the Lido in 1403 to isolate and treat the victims of the plagues, but at the time they realized that a single hospital was not enough. So, in 1468 the senate encamped another small island in the northern lagoon – the Lazzaretto Nuovo – as a quarantine station. The crews arriving from the Mediterranean were forced to rest for 40 days (forty days, hence the term “quarantine”) on the island. Merchants and sailors were important people in Venice and the assigned rooms where they slept were equipped with every comfort: fire, bathroom, kitchen. While those who fell ill were transported to the Lazzaretto Vecchio. You can visit the “Tezon Grande”, more than 100 meters long, the largest public building in Venice after the Corderie dell’Arsenale which was used to store goods from quarantined ships. The wares were beaten, fumigated with aromatic herbs or subjected to any process thought to minimize the contagion. The original writings and drawings on the walls are extraordinary documents that still testify to the arrival at the time of ships from Constantinople and other distant trading ports, together with the comments of the guardians. In 1700 the island lost its health function and under the Napoleonic and Austrian empires it was used for military purposes. Today you can also visit and participate in many activities organized by the association of volunteers.