A tobacco factory that once employed fifteen hundred people has been closed for thirty years — and is only now, after a €14-million recovery project, about to reopen as part of Venice’s law courts.
At a glance
The Manifattura Tabacchi occupied this stretch of Santa Croce from the late nineteenth century until its closure in 1996, at its peak employing over 1,500 workers, reduced to 1,200 by the early 1900s and to just 178 by the time it shut. A stone shield carved into the bridge building that links two wings of the factory reads “A.D. MCMXXXI” — 1931 — beneath a relief of the winged lion of St Mark, the year Eugenio Miozzi took charge of Venice’s Ufficio Tecnico (Public Works Direction).
Key facts
- Active: from the late 19th century until 1996
- Peak workforce: over 1,500 employees, later reduced to 1,200; only 178 remained at closure
- Bridge building dated: 1931, carved “A.D. MCMXXXI” on a stone shield with the lion of St Mark, attributed to the city’s Ufficio Tecnico under Eugenio Miozzi (engineer, head of the office from March 1931)
- Current project: a roughly €14 million recovery scheme, after remediation, for the second phase of Venice’s Justice Court Complex
- Location: Santa Croce, Venice, on Rio Novo near Piazzale Roma
- GPS: 45.43657, 12.31713 · Open in Google Maps
History
For most of the twentieth century, the Manifattura Tabacchi was one of Venice’s largest employers, a state tobacco factory whose workforce peaked above 1,500 in its early decades. Numbers fell steadily after that — to 1,200 in the early 1900s, and to a skeleton crew of 178 by the time the factory finally closed in 1996. The bridge building linking two of its wings carries its construction date carved directly into a stone shield, “A.D. MCMXXXI”, set beneath a relief of the winged lion of St Mark — 1931, the same year Eugenio Miozzi was appointed head of the Comune di Venezia’s Ufficio Tecnico, the office responsible for the city’s public works through the following decades. The building’s design is attributed to that office under his direction, though a document naming Miozzi as its personal designer has not been independently located.
The complex has stood largely closed and disused since 1996. A recovery project of roughly €14 million, following environmental remediation, is now under way to bring the former factory back into use as the second phase of Venice’s Justice Court Complex — giving the old Manifattura a public function once again, after thirty years of silence.
Sources
- Eugenio Miozzi, Wikipedia (Italian) — it.wikipedia.org: his appointment as head of Venice’s Ufficio Tecnico on 1 March 1931
- Il Nord Est, Archeologia industriale, viaggio nella Venezia che non c’è più: La Manifattura Tabacchi — ilnordest.it: the factory’s workforce history and 1996 closure
- C+S Architects, Law Court Offices – Restoration Ex Manifattura Tabacchi — cipiuesse.it: the recovery project and its conversion to law-court use
- On-site carved shield, verified from the contributed photograph: “A.D. MCMXXXI” with the lion of St Mark
- Coordinates cross-checked against OpenStreetMap Nominatim for the Manifattura Tabacchi site
Photo gallery
Photographs contributed by a Cultural Heritage Online member.
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See this place and what’s around it →Record researched and written by Carla Szathvary for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
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