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The State Archives of Venice preserve the sources of over a thousand years of history, from the first descriptions of the city's birth up to the twentieth century.

Since the Restoration this site has been the home of the archives produced during the centuries by the offices of the Serenissma and conserved in the Ducal Palace, the Procuratie Marciane, or the buildings by Rialto, organized according to a design that seemed to suggest, in the physical sequence of these archives, the history of the institutions themselves that produced them.

A wealth of parchment, papers and illustrations spills forth throughout the hundreds of rooms (the former friars' cells) that enclose the cloisters of the Holy Trinity and Saint Anthony, in the Convent of Saint Nicoletto at the Frari, and in the Convent of the Cross at the Giudecca. Together, these constitute one of the most important concentrations of sources for international historical research.

The Archives contain not only the documentary history of the Most Serene Republic of Venice and the Italian, Istrian, Dalmatian and Levantine territories that formed part of its empire. It also contains the documentary history of Venice's diplomatic and commercial relationships throughout the world. In addition to the older documents, the Archives include those from the Napoleonic and Austrian governments.
From 1866 on, we also recive archives from state offices with branches in Venice.

Director: Dr. Raffaele Santoro
E-mail: raffaele.santoro@beniculturali.it

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