Must-see attractions in Venice

  • Saint Mark's basilica (Basilica di San Marco) in Venice, Italy

    Basilica di San Marco

    Venice

    With a profusion of domes and more than 8000 sq metres of luminous mosaics, Venice's cathedral is unforgettable. It was founded in the 9th century to…

  • Awesome sunrise over Doges palace, Venice

    Palazzo Ducale

    Venice

    Holding pride of place on the waterfront, this pretty Gothic confection may be an unlikely setting for the political and administrative seat of a great…

  • Feast in House of Levi by Paolo Caliari known as Veronese (1528-1588), 555x1280 cm, 1563

    Gallerie dell'Accademia

    Venice

    Venice's historic gallery traces the development of Venetian art from the 14th to 19th centuries, with works by all of the city's artistic superstars. The…

  • The Jewish Ghetto in the Cannaregio district of Venice was instituted in 1516. Jews were permitted to leave the ghetto during the day to work, but they had to return at night. The gates were then locked and guarded by Christian watchmen whose salaries the Jews were required to pay. The Venetian ghetto was the first ghetto in the world and where the term 'ghetto' originated.
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    The Ghetto

    Venice

    In medieval times this part of Cannaregio housed a getto (foundry), but it was as the designated Jewish quarter from the 16th to 19th centuries that the…

  • Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute at Canal Grande, Venice, Italy

    Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

    Venice

    Baldassare Longhena's magnificent basilica is prominently positioned near the entrance to the Grand Canal, its white stones, exuberant statuary and high…

  • The white marble facade of Ca' Rezzonico on the Grand Canal in Venice. Italy

    Ca' Rezzonico

    Venice

    Baroque dreams come true at this Baldassare Longhena–designed Grand Canal palazzo (mansion), where a marble staircase leads to a vast gilded ballroom and…

  • VENICE, ITALY - AUGUST 17, 2014: High dynamic range (HDR) The Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice Italy
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    Peggy Guggenheim Collection

    Venice

    After losing her father on the Titanic, heiress Peggy Guggenheim became one of the great collectors of the 20th century. Her palatial canalside home,…

  • The National Archaeological Museum is a museum in Venice. The building that encloses the far end of the Piazza San Marco

    Museo Correr

    Venice

    Napoleon pulled down an ancient church to build his royal digs over Piazza San Marco, and then filled them with the riches of the doges while taking some…

  • Venice, Italy - February 15th, 2014 : People walking in the square San Rocco in front of a renaissance palace called Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Italy.
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    Scuola Grande di San Rocco

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    Everyone wanted the commission to paint this building dedicated to St Roch, patron saint of the plague-stricken, so Tintoretto cheated: instead of…

  • Aerial view of Santa Maria di Assunta cathedral on Torcello island in Venice lagoon, Italy

    Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta

    Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands

    Life choices are presented in no uncertain terms in the dazzling mosaics of the Assumption Basilica. Look ahead to a golden afterlife amid saints and a…

  • Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, square of Venice

    Zanipolo

    Venice

    Commenced in 1333 but not finished until the 1430s, this vast church is similar in style and scope to the Franciscan Frari in San Polo, which was being…

  • Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Italy

    La Fenice

    Venice

    Once its dominion over the high seas ended, Venice discovered the power of the high Cs, opening La Fenice in 1792. Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini staged…

  • Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli primo santuario Civico Saint Maria of Miracles catholic church Renaissance-style building, Brescia city historical centre, Italian churches, Lombardy, Northern Italy

    Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli

    Venice

    This magnificent church was built between 1481 and 1489 to house Nicolò di Pietro's Madonna icon after the painting began to miraculously weep in its…

  • Venice, Italy - November 2022: Madonna with child and saints; Frari triptych painting by Giovanni Bellini from 1488 in the Sacristy altar - Pesaro's Chapel inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Glorious St. Mary of Frari
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    I Frari

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    A soaring Gothic church, the Friary's assets include marquetry choir stalls, Canova's pyramid mausoleum, Bellini's achingly sweet Madonna with Child…

  • Venice, Italy - 5 April 2016:  Fishmongers set up their stalls with a variety of fresh fish, including giant swordfish, at the Rialto fish market, Venice, Italy
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    Rialto Market

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    Venice’s main market has been whetting appetites for seven centuries, with fruit and vegetable stands abutting the rather more pungent Pescaria. To see it…

  • Church of Saints Mary and Donato, Murano, Italy

    Basilica dei SS Maria e Donato

    Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands

    Fire-breathing is the unifying theme of Murano’s medieval church, with its astounding 12th-century gilded-glass apse mosaic of the Madonna made in Murano…

  • Arsenale.

    Arsenale

    Venice

    Founded in 1104, the Arsenale soon became the greatest medieval shipyard in Europe, home to 300 shipping companies employing up to 16,000 people. Capable…

  • Stages of the artisanal processing of Murano glass
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    Murano

    Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands

    Murano has been the home of Venetian glass-making since the 13th century. Today, artisans continue to ply their trade at workshops dotted around the…

  • Chiesa della Madonna dell’Orto

    Venice

    This elegantly spare 1365 brick Gothic church remains one of Venice's best-kept secrets. It was the parish church of Venetian Renaissance painter…

  • View of St Mark's square or piazza di San Marco, Venice, Italy, sundown on cloudy day. Bell tower or Campanile, St Mark's Basilica main facade and entrance and Procurate Vecchie building, beautiful sky and clouds, UNESCO World heritage city.
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View of St Mark's square or piazza di San Marco, Venice, Italy in sundown on cloudy day. Campanile, St Mark's Basilica, Procurate Vecchie building

    Campanile

    Venice

    Basilica di San Marco's 99m-tall bell tower has been rebuilt twice since its initial construction in AD 888. Galileo Galilei tested his telescope here in…

  • Saint Mary of Health basilica in Venice and Punta della Dogana, aerial view at sunset in Italy

    Punta della Dogana

    Venice

    Fortuna, the weathervane atop Punta della Dogana, swung Venice’s way in 2005, when bureaucratic hassles in Paris convinced art collector François Pinault…

  • Fountain and monument statue of Dante Alighieri in park Giardini Pubblici in Trento, Italy

    Giardini Pubblici

    Venice

    Begun under Napoleon as the city's first public green space, these leafy gardens are now the main home of the Biennale. Around half of the gardens is open…

  • Venice, Italy - November 02, 2021: The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, Italy. Building located in the San Polo sestiere of the Italian city of Venice

    Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    One of Venice's five main religious confraternities, the lay brothers of St John the Evangelist performed works of charity but also supported the arts by…

  • Ca’ Pesaro

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    The stately exterior of this Baldassare Longhena–designed 1710 palazzo hides two intriguing art museums that could hardly be more different: the Galleria…

  • VENICE, ITALY - JULY 27,2017 : St Mark's Square in Venice on a sunny summer day
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    Piazza San Marco

    Venice

    This grand showpiece square beautifully encapsulates the splendour of Venice's past and its tourist-fuelled present. Flanked by the arcaded Procuratie…

  • Colourful row houses by canal, Burano.
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    Burano

    Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands

    Burano, with its cheery pastel-coloured houses, is renowned for its handmade lace, which once graced the decolletage and ruffs of European aristocracy…

  • Torcello island, Basilica and Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Venetian-Byzantine style (639), one of the oldest churches in Venice, and the Church of Santa Fosca (IX-XII century), Venice lagoon, UNESCO world heritage site, Veneto, Italy, Europe.
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    Torcello

    Murano, Burano & the Northern Islands

    Torcello, the republic's original island settlement, was largely abandoned due to malaria and now counts only around 14 permanent residents. Its mosaic…

  • Chiesa di Santo Stefano

    Venice

    The free-standing bell tower, visible from the square behind, leans disconcertingly, but this brick Gothic church has stood tall since the 13th century…

  • Museo Fortuny

    Venice

    Find design inspiration at the palatial home studio of art nouveau designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871–1949), whose uncorseted Delphi-goddess frocks…

  • Ponte di Rialto

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    A superb feat of engineering, Antonio da Ponte’s 1592 Istrian stone span took three years and 250,000 gold ducats to construct. Adorned with stone reliefs…

  • Venice, Italy 02.12.2018. detail of interior in historical Palazzo Grimani building with flying angel statue and wall decorations build in 1556; Shutterstock ID 1287835957; purchase_order: 65050; job: poi; client: ; other:
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    Palazzo Grimani

    Venice

    The Grimani family built their Renaissance palazzo (mansion) in 1568 to showcase the extraordinary Graeco-Roman sculpture collection of Cardinal Giovanni…

  • View of the natural history museum in Venice over the grand canal,; Shutterstock ID 200674658; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 65050/Online Design/Josh Vogel/ ; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: iyl

    Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia

    San Polo & Santa Croce

    Never mind the doge: insatiable curiosity rules Venice, and inside the former Fondaco dei Turchi (Turkish Trading House) it runs wild. The adventure…

  • The church and bell tower of San Nicolò

    Chiesa di San Nicolò dei Mendicoli

    Venice

    Other churches might be grander, but none is more quintessentially Venetian than this 12th-century church with a history of service to the poor. Its…

  • Venice - Portal of church San Francesco della Vigna
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    Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna

    Venice

    Designed and built by Jacopo Sansovino, with a facade by Palladio, this enchanting Franciscan church is one of Venice’s most underappreciated attractions…

  • The church facade and bridge at San Sebastiano

    Chiesa di San Sebastiano

    Venice

    Antonio Scarpignano’s relatively austere 1508–48 facade creates a sense of false modesty at this neighbourhood church. The interior is adorned with floor…

  • Fondazione Querini Stampalia

    Venice

    In 1869 Conte Giovanni Querini Stampalia made a gift of his ancestral 16th-century palazzo (mansion) to the city on the forward-thinking condition that…

  • Torre dell'Orologio, the clock face shows both the hours and signs of the zodiac

    Torre dell’Orologio

    Venice

    The two hardest-working men in Venice stand duty on a rooftop around the clock, and wear no pants. The 'Do Mori' (Two Moors) exposed to the elements atop…

  • Museo di San Marco, golden mosaics adorn the entrance in the vestibule

    Museo di San Marco

    Venice

    Accessed by a narrow staircase leading up from Basilica di San Marco's atrium, this museum transports visitors to the level of the church's rear mosaics…

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