Raised on the reclaimed island of Sant’Elena in just over a year, this brick complex opened in 1937 to train boys for the Royal Navy under the fascist-era “Collegio Navale della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio,” and still trains naval cadets today under the name of the Venetian admiral Francesco Morosini.
At a glance
In 1936 the Opera Nazionale Balilla commissioned architects Francesco Mansutti and Gino Miozzo to design a professional school for young “marinaretti,” intended in part to take in boys from the training ship Scilla as it approached decommissioning. Construction began on 1 September 1936, and its foundation stone — cut from Venice’s ancient Arsenale — was laid on 9 October that same year. The complex opened in 1937 on Sant’Elena, the last-reclaimed extension of the city, housing the “Collegio Navale della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio,” created to prepare young people for service in the Regia Marina.
Key facts
- Commissioned by: Opera Nazionale Balilla, 1936
- Architects: Francesco Mansutti and Gino Miozzo
- Construction: begun 1 September 1936; foundation stone (cut from the Arsenale) laid 9 October 1936
- Opened: 1937, as the Collegio Navale della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio
- Closed as a college: 1943; hosted the Navy’s Petty Officers’ Schools 1946–1959
- Today: the Scuola Navale Militare “Francesco Morosini,” a military school for Navy cadets
From the Littorio’s naval college to today’s Morosini
The school was conceived to give a structured naval education to boys, many of them already at sea aboard training ships, at a moment when the fascist state was building parallel youth institutions across the country. Its Sant’Elena site placed it beside the city’s naval and Arsenale traditions, symbolically reinforced by a foundation stone taken from the Arsenale itself. The Collegio Navale della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio operated from 1937 until 1943; after the war, from 1946 to 1959, the complex housed the Navy’s schools for petty officers, before continuing under the name of the 17th-century Venetian admiral and doge Francesco Morosini as the naval military school still active today.
Getting there
The school stands on the island of Sant’Elena, at the eastern tip of Venice, reachable from the Sant’Elena vaporetto stop.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Scuola navale militare ‘Francesco Morosini'” and “Francesco Morosini Naval Military School” — on the 1936 commission, architects, construction dates and post-war history.
- Stefano Vigolo, who photographed the school.
Photo gallery
Photograph contributed by a Cultural Heritage Online member.
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Record researched and written by Stefano Vigolo for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
📷 Become a Cultural Heritage Online photographer
Share your photos of places: they stay published under your name as the author. The more they're seen, the more you get noticed — and soon a contest will reward the most appreciated photos.
Log in or sign up free to add a photo