Venice, Veneto · from 1928 · Fire station
At a glance
Venice is the one city where the fire brigade goes to work by water, and this is the building that makes it possible. Begun in 1928 to a design by the Venetian architect Brenno Del Giudice, it is a block seventy-seven metres long over three floors, with its main front on calle Ca’ Foscari and, on the side facing the canal, a row of arched openings that are not windows but garages: the fire boats are moored inside the building.
Key facts
- Begun: early 1928, on land bought for the purpose
- Architect: Brenno Del Giudice
- Size: about 77 metres long, three floors
- Main front: calle Ca’ Foscari
- On the canal side: boat garages opening onto the rio di Ca’ Foscari
- Contractor: the Eugenio Gobbetto firm, which completed the work between 1935 and 1937
- Inside: quarters, mess halls, a workshop and a courtyard for drill
- Still in use: Comando Provinciale dei Vigili del Fuoco di Venezia
- Coordinates: 45.4351769, 12.3261213
What you see
From the water the building is a long pale front with a loggia of arches at canal level — the garages, where the boats come and go. Above it the elevation is plain and symmetrical, with a shallow cornice and rows of rectangular windows: a public building of the late 1920s, restrained to the point of severity.
From the calle on the landward side the scale is easier to read. The block runs the length of the street, and the white stone base against the brick of the older houses opposite marks where the twentieth century was inserted into this corner of Dorsoduro.
The station today
Practical information
- Seen from the public street or canal; the building is in use and not open to visitors.
Sources
- Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco, Comando di Venezia — history of the station: the 1928 building, its dimensions, Brenno Del Giudice as architect, the Gobbetto firm and the 1935–1937 completion
- OpenStreetMap — location
On the Heritage Days walk
Photographed on 26 and 27 September 2026, on the free walk led by Andrea Manzo for the Associazione Beni Culturali Online APS, during the European Heritage Days.
Record researched and written by Stefano Vigolo for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
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The canal front, with the bridge in front of it
Photo: Stefano Vigolo
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prints 34 × 25 cm at 300 dpi · taken 2013
The station across the water
Photo: Stefano Vigolo
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4160 × 2340 px · JPG · 3.3 MB
prints 35 × 20 cm at 300 dpi · taken 2015
The upper elevation
Photo: Stefano Vigolo
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3000 × 4000 px · JPG · 4.3 MB
prints 25 × 34 cm at 300 dpi · taken 2013
The block from the calle
Photo: Stefano Vigolo
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3000 × 4000 px · JPG · 4.3 MB
prints 25 × 34 cm at 300 dpi · taken 2013