The Civic Museum of the South Lagoon

The Civic Museum of the Southern Lagoon — also known as “San Francesco Outside the Walls” Museum — is an archaeological and ethnographic museum of Chioggia and one of the main ones in the area of the Venice Lagoon. Operating since 31 May 1997, it is located in Campo Marconi n°1 and is set up in the former Convent of San Francesco outside the Walls, a short distance from the Porta di Santa Maria and at the end of the Canal Vena, the canal main city of the city. The original building dates back to 1315, while its reconstruction dates back to 1434, after the destruction occurred during the Chioggia war between the Serenissima Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa.

In the nineteenth century (year 1806) dates back to the deconsecration of the convent, which since then has assumed various functions, first of all, the military warehouse and then, after the First World War, divided into two parts, the market fruit and vegetables. After the Second World War it became a shelter for displaced persons and then, before being recovered as a museum centre, bus depot. Already in 1868 the Municipality of Chioggia acquired the library collection of the oratory of the Fathers Filippini, creating the Civic Library of Chioggia, named after Cristoforo Sabbadino, distinguished engineer of the Very serene. The museum structure It is divided on three floors collecting archaeological evidence found in Chioggia in the surrounding areas and that have as common denominator water. On the ground floor there are findings from pre-Roman, Roman and medieval times; the first floor houses collections from medieval, Renaissance and modern times; the second floor finally exhibits an exhibition on shipbuilding and on the seafarers since the 18th century. In this last section a room is dedicated to hydraulic defense technologies adopted in Roman imperial times while another one documents commercial activities in Roman times; other rooms are dedicated specifically to Sabbadino and seafarers, to local fishing and shipbuilding. The museum uses various documentary material such as, in addition to traditional archaeological finds, coins, ceramics, plastics, dioramas, fishing gear, costumes and photographs. The museum also houses on the first floor, next to the Cristoforo Sabbadino room, the municipal historical archive, which can be visited from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 13 pm. There are preserved documents of great historical and cultural importance dating back, as in the case of the Mariegole — illuminated parchment codes — to 1246, the era of the first medieval statutes. The present documentation goes up to the 1950s documenting local life after World War II.