Italy · Veneto · Venice
Cannaregio, Venice — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Cannaregio is the northernmost of Venice's six historic sestieri, running along the north bank of the Grand Canal from the railway station toward the Rialto. It is the most populous of the six. The broad Cannaregio Canal and the pedestrian Strada Nova cross it, and its Jewish Ghetto gave the word to the world.
About Cannaregio
Where to stay in Cannaregio
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Staying in Cannaregio means a base where Venetians still outnumber visitors, with good-value rooms along quiet canals a short walk from the railway station and the Rialto. The pace is calmer here. Its northern quays, the Fondamenta della Misericordia among them, fill with wine bars and small trattorie after dark.
Lodgings gather near the Ca' d'Oro and the Jewish Ghetto, both off the Strada Nova. For sightseeing you are close to everything, since San Marco and the Grand Canal palaces sit a short walk to the south.
About Cannaregio
What are the main landmarks in Cannaregio?
The Ca' d'Oro is the sestiere's showpiece, a Gothic palace on the Grand Canal whose tracery earned it the name golden house. Three churches anchor the quarter. Madonna dell'Orto, the parish church of the painter Tintoretto, keeps several of his canvases and marks his burial place near the northern shore.
Santa Maria dei Miracoli, sheathed in colored marble, stands near the Castello border, while Santa Maria degli Scalzi rises in Baroque stone beside the railway station.
What is the history of Cannaregio?
Cannaregio grew as one of the six sestieri into which the Venetian Republic divided its lagoon city. Before the railway causeway reached the islands in the nineteenth century, travelers from the mainland entered Venice through the Cannaregio Canal, which made the quarter a threshold to the city. The Jewish Ghetto dates from 1516.
That enclosure gave Europe the word ghetto, taken from the foundry that once occupied the island. Around it the wider city held its lagoon form for centuries and ranks as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Where is Cannaregio?
The sestiere occupies the north of Venice's island core, bounded to the south by the Grand Canal and to the east by the Castello quarter. Its northern edge is one long waterfront onto the open lagoon. Two channels order it, the Grand Canal to the south and the broad Cannaregio Canal cutting inland from Santa Lucia station to the water's edge.
The pedestrian Strada Nova threads its spine toward the Rialto.
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Updated July 2026