This overgrown garden was Venice’s main Jewish cemetery from 1386 until the 18th century. It fell into disuse after the establishment of a new cemetery on Via Cipro and the tombstones were only rediscovered by construction workers in the 1920s. Tombstones range in design from Venetian Gothic to distinctly Ottoman. Some bear the image of a lion, not of St Mark, but of Castile and León, brought to Venice on the armorials of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.
Tours must be pre-booked with the Museo Ebraico .
