Campo San Barnaba Historical Timeline

Origins

The square grew up around the parish church of San Barnaba, with the surviving campanile dating back to the 11th century -- centuries older than the church beside it, which was rebuilt in its current Neoclassical form in 1776 to designs by Lorenzo Boschetti.

Turning points

Through the 18th century, the Casin dei Nobili on the square operated as a gaming house for Venice's aristocracy, part of a wider casino culture that flourished in the Republic's final decades before Napoleon's arrival ended it. The church itself was deconsecrated in the Napoleonic period, part of the same wave of closures that affected several parish churches across the city, and has since been repurposed for exhibitions rather than worship.

Cultural evolution

The square's working-class character persisted through the 19th and 20th centuries, reinforced by its proximity to Ca' Foscari University, which drew a student population to the surrounding streets much as it did at nearby Campo Santa Margherita. Its brief appearance as a fictional library facade in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989) gave the square an additional, unrelated claim to recognition.

Present-day significance

Campo San Barnaba today keeps much of that dual identity -- a genuine neighborhood square with food stalls and a book shop, sitting a short walk from some of Dorsoduro's best-known museums.