Antico Cimitero Israelitico


This overgrown graveyard was Venice’s main Jewish cemetery from 1386 until the 18th century. 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. The cemetery can only be visited on a guided tour, arranged through the Museo Ebraico, but you can get a reasonable view through the gate.