Lazzaretto Nuovo: Venetian island eco-museum opens nature trail

The Lazzaretto Nuovo, a Venetian island that served as a quarantine station for centuries, has added a one-kilometer nature trail called Il Sentiero delle Barene around its old ramparts. The island, now an eco-museum promoted by the Fondazione Italia Patria della Bellezza, covers about nine hectares at the start of the Sant'Erasmo canal. It was a Benedictine monastery in the Middle Ages, later a lazaretto that pioneered contagion prevention methods using herbal fumes and vinegar, then a fortress under Napoleonic and Austrian rule. Used by the Italian Army until the early 1970s, it was decommissioned and eventually restored by the Ministry of Culture, reopening for exhibitions and visits. The trail showcases the lagoon's most precious environment: barene—low, flat expanses of dense vegetation on clay soil that stabilize the ground, purify water, and host species like Salicornia veneta, Limonium, and Astro marino. The path winds through small canals, laurel groves, ash trees, hawthorn, wild plums, and marsh reeds, offering 360-degree views of Venice. The island also features a historic route with centuries-old mulberry trees along Austrian radial avenues, fruit trees along the walls, and the Tezon Grande building with temporary and permanent exhibitions, plus mysterious incisions and graffiti. During the Venice Biennale, the garden provides new perspectives on the lagoon. The article was published in Grandi Mostre #28.