Lazzaretto Vecchio

Located just off the Lido, this six acre islet was initially dedicated to St Mary Nazaretum (of Nazareth), and served in the 13th-century as an asylum for poor and sick pilgrims waiting to ship out to the Holy Land.

In 1432, when memories of the Black Death were still vivid, the island became Europe’s first public hospital for contagious diseases, used to isolate victims of plague and leprosy. Even so, devastating plagues struck Venice like clockwork (in the 15th century, even the Doge, Giovanni Mocenigo, wasn't spared; other major outbreaks occurred in 1576 and 1630). Medical knowledge was such that either patients died, or didn't; the latter were sent to recover in the nearby Lazzaretto Nuovo.

Although quarantining patients was credited with sparing lives in Venice, conditions were still appalling. In 1576, when up to 500 were buried every day, Venetian chronicler Rocco Benedetti wrote: