Venice Daily Photo

- the Ponte Ghetto Nuovo today

One of the things I've learned of that I hadn't known before, thanks to those novels about Israeli agent/art restorer Gabriel Allon, is that the word "ghetto" originated in Venice ......

The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name, in the Venetian language, that the word "ghetto", used in many languages, is derived.

The name is derived from the "campo gheto" an area that iron foundries located there in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries used for cooling slag (Venetian "gheta"; Italian "ghetta"; from Latin GLITTU[M], GLITTUS).

The Ghetto is an area of the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice, divided into the Ghetto Nuovo ("New Ghetto"), and the adjacent Ghetto Vecchio ("Old Ghetto"). These names of the ghetto sections are misleading, as they refer to an older and newer site at the time of their use by the foundries: in terms of Jewish residence, the Ghetto Nuovo is actually older than the Ghetto Vecchio. - Wikipedia

And ....

Beginning in 1516, Jews were restricted to living in the Venetian Ghetto. It was enclosed by guarded gates and no one was allowed to leave from sunset to dawn. However, Jews held successful positions in the city such as merchants, physicians, money lenders, and other trades. Restrictions on daily Jewish life continued for more than 270 years, until Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the Venetian Republic in 1797. He removed the gates and gave all residents the freedom to live where they chose. - Wikipedia

Most of the bridges in Venice are made of stone or brick, but the Ponte Ghetto Nuovo, the bridge leading to the Ghetto, was/is made of metal, and back in the day it was gated, locked, and guarded (the photo above is from the Venice Daily Photo blog).