Via Garibaldi Street / Area

Via Garibaldi, the inhabited heart of Castello

Via Garibaldi is one of the most recognizable streets in the sestiere of Castello. Exceptionally wide for Venice, animated by shops, cafés and terraces, it offers a more everyday face than the routes concentrated around St Mark's Square. Residents, families and visitors cross paths in an atmosphere still largely tied to the life of the neighborhood.

A street born from the disappearance of a canal

The street was created at the beginning of the 19th century, as part of the urban transformations of the Napoleonic period, by filling in a canal. First called Strada Nuova dei Giardini, then Via Eugenia, it later took the name of Giuseppe Garibaldi. This origin explains its unusual width, its straight layout and its promenade-like appearance in a neighborhood generally made up of much narrower calli.

The choice of the word via is itself quite exceptional: most Venetian streets are designated as calli, salizade or rughe. Via Garibaldi thus ranks among the very few thoroughfares in the historic center to bear this name, along with Via XXII Marzo near San Marco.

The area retains a popular and residential identity inherited from its proximity to the Arsenal, which for centuries employed a large population of workers, artisans and sailors. Food shops, bars, small boutiques and stalls installed along the street still extend this neighborhood-center function, even if tourist attendance increases during the Biennale events.

Via Garibaldi is also lined with more discreet buildings, among them the church of San Francesco di Paola. Built at the end of the 16th century on the foundations of an earlier church, it notably preserves works by Palma il Giovane, Giandomenico Tiepolo and Jacopo Marieschi.

Visiting it is therefore that of a still-living piece of the city. One must observe the facades, the shops, the lively cafés and the passages that lead to the neighboring canals. At its western end, the street meets the monument dedicated to Garibaldi and extends towards Viale Garibaldi and the gardens of Castello.

Via Garibaldi thus forms a natural stop between the Arsenal, the spaces of the Biennale, the Giardini and the eastern districts of Castello. It is also a progressive transition from monumental Venice to a more residential city, without leaving the great historic itineraries.

Sources and further information

Comune di Venezia – Castello Est and Via Garibaldi ; Venezia Unica – Castello.