The monastery and Palladian cloister adjacent to the Frari have, since the early 1800s, housed the State Archives of Venice. The Republic left behind 90 km of files (about the distance from here to Vicenza) beginning in the 9th century, covering every aspect of Venetian life from important state secrets down to reports prepared by spies and busybodies on which patricians were gambling or whoring too much: a horde of paper occupying 300 rooms. Two or three times a year exhibitions are held here, based on archival material.
Campo dei Frari
vaporetto: S. Tomà
+39 041 5222281
Image by Stephan Kiessling