Day 17- Murano, Burano, and the Jewish Ghetto

The hotel offered a “free” tour of Murano, the famous glassblowing center on one of the small islands adjacent to Venice.  It actually turned out to be a hard sell for very high end glassware and glass art, but it did get us a way to get to both Murano and an even smaller island, Burano to see the lacemaking center of Italy. 

We wended our way by water taxi through the canals of Venice in the early morning and just had to get some nice photos in the warm morning light.

We were met at the dock in front of the Mazzega Glass Factory.

Most historians identify the beginning of the Murano glass blowing tradition at around the end of the 10th century.  For the next 200 years, glassblowing flourished in Venice. This proved to be too much of a risk for the fire prone Venetian Republic which at that time consisted mainly of wooden buildings and structures.

In 1291 the Venetian Senate decreed that, because of the risk of fire from the increasing number of furnaces operating, the industry had to be removed from Venice to the Island of Murano. Murano's glass makers were soon the island’s most prominent citizens.

However glass makers were not allowed to leave the Venetian Republic in order to safeguard the glass-blowing manufacturing techniques. Several penalties were ordered for glass blowers who shared their glass-blowing techniques with other countries.

In the 16^th Century, Murano glass making supported almost the entire economy of the island of Murano. Murano’s glassmakers held a monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries, developing or refining many technologies including crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass.  After the 17^th Century, Murano glass production dropped precipitously due to Chinese glass exports (sound familiar) and the art was not revived until the late 1880’s.  Since then, several families have taken up the art and have passed it on from generation to generation.  The Mazzegas are a fourth generation family business.

We watched  some of the artisans both blow and stretch glass.  

After this we were brought to a showroom that contained both glassware for “everyday” use, and artwork. 

Jeri almost broke down and bought a beautiful dish to sit on our table, but decided it was too big. (Whew!).  There were some nice Seder plates but for $5,000 (shipped!) we decided it probably was not a great investment.  Our guide/salesman was a bit disappointed in our lack of willingness to open our wallets and soon lost interest in us.  He did get us a private boat, though, to the neighboring island of Burano to get the hard sell for lace goods.

One of the most famous legends about the beginning of lace in Burano recounts a  story of a fisherman who encountered a siren who tried to entice him by her song. She failed due to his faithfulness to his fiancée.  The siren’s queen was so impressed that she gave him a gift. She thumped the side of the boat by her tail, creating a foam from which a wedding veil developed.

He returned home on the day of marriage, and gave the gift to his fiancée. She was admired and envied by all the young ladies of the island, whereupon they began to imitate the lace of the wedding veil employing finer and finer needle-and-thread hoping to create an even more beautiful lace for their wedding dresses.

The game plan here was the same:  watch the artist work, followed by a presentation of of outrageously expensive dry goods.

We walked around the island while we waited for the ferry (vaporetto)  back to Venice.  The houses along the canals were brightly colored as were many of the shops and restaurants.  

They also have their own leaning tower.  

So many Italian buildings seem to have difficulty standing up straight.  Probably should give them some slack, though, since many of the projects were started 1000 years ago.

We got the vaporetto back to San Marco just in time to meet our tour guide for the Ghetto tour.  On the way back, we passed the island of San Michelle. 

Until the early 19th century, Venetians usually buried their dead under paving stones within the central city -- not very hgeinic. During the  Austrian occupation in 1837 it was decreed that San Michele would be the only possible burial ground for most Venetians. (A Jewish cemetery dating from the 14th century is on the Lido.) Since San Michele is a very small island, however, it is usually only a temporary resting place. After about 12 years, most remains are exhumed and cremated.

After landing at San Marco, we hightailed it to our hotel to meet our guide.  She walked with us all over Venice, pointing out important landmarks and giving us a running history as we walked.  Our first point of interest was the church 100 yards from our hotel.  The church is called Chiesa di San Moise (Church of St. Moses???). 

It turns out that the Byzantine Church (adhered to by early Venetians) deemed that all Old Testament prophets be considered saints, thus, St. Moshe.  This church was built in the 8^th Century.

As we walked through various neighborhoods, our guide pointed out some interesting architectural details that were brought from Persia and  Arabic lands. 




We crossed the Grand Canal via the Rialto, to see the early trade center of Venice.  

This square also housed the earliest bank 

to extend lines of credit needed for the burgeoning trade.  

We then had to cross back to get to the Nuovo Getto, and were surprised to get a gondola ride to the other side. 

Venice was a critical  center for trade between the East and West.   This was also important for our understanding the role of Jews in Medieval and Renaissance Venice.

While Jews did not settle in Venice until the 13^th century, many Jewish merchants and moneylenders visited and worked in the city beginning with the 10^th century. Jews were mentioned in documents in 945 and 992 forbidding Venetian captains from accepting Jews onboard their ships. In 1252, Jews were not allowed to settle in the main part of the city, so they settled on the island of Spinaulunga (also spelled Spinalonga) which later became Giudecca.

In 1290, Jewish merchants and moneylenders were allowed to work in Venice, but were forced to pay a special tax. Over the next 200 years, Jews were at various times expelled and invited in to Venice.  They were forced to wear a yellow badge (which became a hat then a red hat ) to identify them as Jewish.  Severe restrictions were placed on professions and land ownership.  Still, Jewish life and culture grew.

In 1516, the doges, Venice’s ruling council, debated whether Jews should be allowed to remain in the city. They decided to let the Jews remain, but their residence would be confined to Ghetto Nuova, a small, dirty island; it became the world’s first ghetto. The word “ghetto” is from the Italian getto meaning “casting” or Venetian geto meaning “foundry.”  This area was filled with foundries that were no longer in use.

Further restrictions were placed on Jews living in the ghetto. They were only allowed to leave during the day and were locked inside at night. Jews were only permitted to work at pawn shops, act as money lenders, work the Hebrew printing press, trade in textiles or practice medicine. Detailed banking laws kept their interest rates low and made life difficult for many of the poor pawnbrokers and moneylenders.

Ashkenazi Jews came here from Germany and Italy and Sephardic Jews from Spain, Portugal, and the Levantine.  Each had there own community and synagogue.

The ghetto consists of an open square surrounded by “skyscrapers” on three sides. 

                             



















 

      

                                                                           

Because of the lack of space in the ghetto, many six-story “skyscrapers” were built. Laws forbid building separate synagogues, hence the synagogues were built on the top floors of the buildings because there should be no obstructions between the congregation and the heavens.

The Tedesca or German synagogue, is the oldest synagogue in the ghetto, built in 1528.

Canton Synagogue, which was built in 1531. This synagogue served as the center for Jews from Germany, France and Switzerland. 

Italian synagogue, built in 1575, served the Italians, the poorest group in the ghetto. The synagogue is quite simple reflecting its status among the communities.

On both sides of the Casa di Riposa (Jewish Home for the Aged) are Holocaust memorials designed by sculptor Arbit Blatas. The Nazis gathered Jews for deportation in the square. One of the monuments is a bronze panel depicting the Last Train, 

the other monument has bronze reliefs that show the Nazi brutality against the Jews.

 The Spanish Synagogue is a four-story story yellow stone building, constructed in 1550, as the center for Spanish and Portuguese Jewry. The building was restored in 1635. Its interior is more ornate than the Levantine Synagogue and contains three large chandeliers and a dozen smaller ones, as well as a huge sculpted wooden ceiling. This synagogue may be the only in the world that has held services continuously from 1550 until the present day.

The Levantine Synagogue, which is a two-story yellow stone building, catered to the Jews of Middle East descent.

Only about 500 Jews remain in Venice and only 30 live in the Ghetto.

Our guide left us in the Ghetto with instructions for us to find our way back.  Everyone says “you have to get lost in Venice”, so that is precisely what we did.  Using a marginally effective map, we circled back to our hotel a feat that took us the better part of 2 hours. 

Our legs were pretty tired by the time we made it back to the hotel.  We decided to have Italian food for dinner (LOL), and pumped more cash into the Venetian economy.

Tomorrow is our last day in Venice.