Rialto Market Historical Timeline

Origins

Trade at Rialto is documented as far back as the 11th century, and the market took a decisive step toward its modern form in 1097, when two wealthy Venetians, Pietro and Tiso Orio, donated a large plot of land here -- including shops and warehouses -- to the Republic. The fish market itself, the Pescaria, has roots reaching back to at least the 13th century.

Turning points

In 1459, Venetian authorities moved the Pescaria to its present location, reportedly because the smell and noise of fish trading had become an irritant to the nobles conducting their banking business nearby -- Rialto having long doubled as the city's financial district as well as its produce market. A destructive fire tore through the district in 1514, and the market complex was substantially rebuilt afterward, laid out into the zoned squares and porticoes still recognizable today, with old lane names like Naranzeria (oranges) and Speziali (spices) still marking where specific goods were once sold.

Influential people

The market's current fish hall, the Palazzo della Pescheria, was built in 1907 to a design by the architect Domenico Rupolo, in a Neo-Gothic style deliberately built to recall the medieval commercial architecture that had defined Rialto for centuries -- an open loggia of pointed arches facing directly onto the Grand Canal.

Cultural evolution

Alongside the Pescheria, the Erberia -- the fruit and vegetable market, laid out along the Grand Canal between the Fabbriche Nove and the fish hall -- has kept its own separate rhythm and space, together forming the two halves of what Venetians still simply call "the market."

Present-day significance

Despite centuries of change around it, the Rialto Market remains one of the very few places in central Venice where the city's own residents, not just visitors, do their daily food shopping -- one of Europe's oldest markets still operating close to its original purpose.