Recovery and conservation of tombstones, drainage and landscaping partially funded in 1999 by the Steven H. and Alida Brill Scheuer Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rose, the City of Venice, the Region of The Veneto, World Monuments Fund, Venice in Peril Fund, Cesare Vivante, and the Comitato per il Centro Storico Ebraico (Committee for Jewish Historic Centers).

In 1386, the Venetian Republic granted permission to the Jewish community to bury their dead on the island of the Lido, on a piece of land belonging to the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò. Because of a large Jewish influx in Venice in the sixteenth century and two plagues (in 1576 and 1630), additional land was granted for Jewish burial, but in the mid-1600s nearby military fortifications began to encroach on the cemetery’s borders and the Venetian Republic took some land away from the Jewish community.

From then on, a series of temporary occupations, restitutions, and compensations, which continued even after the fall of the Venetian Republic, led to the loss of the northern section of the cemetery and the consequent disappearance of most of the tombstones from that area. A few hundred burial markers from the lost section were moved to the land that remained and placed on top of those already present, creating a second layer of tombstones. The grounds eventually fell into ruins, and were much admired in the works of nineteenth-century Romantic writers such as Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1929, the section of the cemetery closest to the lagoon was expropriated to lengthen the lagoon road.

Today the cemetery is one-sixth of its original size and contains about 1,200 burial monuments. These markers include sarcophagi, burial covers, steles, blocks, and columns dedicated to Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, and Levantine Jews. The styles of the tombstones range from plain and simple, as prescribed by Jewish tradition, to ornate and artisanal, some with the family crests popular in the Spanish community. Famous members of Venice’s Jewish community whose burial monuments have been recovered include Leon da Modena (1571–1648), Elia Levita (1469–1549), and Sara Copio Sullam (1592–1641). The Jewish community abandoned the cemetery in 1774 in favor of a larger site nearby.

Save Venice’s conservation efforts at the Old Jewish Cemetery included draining swampy land, excavating sunken grave markers, and systematically cataloguing and restoring the tombstones. The restorations were undertaken by conservators from the San Marco Restauri firm, with the guidance of project director Maurizia de Min of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Unidentified artisans
Old Jewish Cemetery
1386 to 1774