The Venetian Ghetto

The Venetian Senate ordered the city's Jews to live on an island in Cannaregio around a former copper foundry, the getto, locked at night and guarded at their own expense. The word spread to segregated quarters across Europe. Crowded into tall buildings, Ashkenazi, Italian and Sephardic communities built synagogues that still stand. Napoleon's troops removed the gates in 1797.