Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Credit: www.serradeigiardini.org

Serra dei Giardini

Veneza, Itália

Located in the Castello area in Venice, the Greenhouse is just a few minutes from the Biennale Giardini. Historically known as Serra Margherita (Margherita Greenhouse), the Greeenhouse at Giardini in Castello was built in 1894 with the intention to create a "tepidarium made of glass and iron" to host the palm trees and other decorative plants in use at the coeval International Art Exhibition. After its construction, in a span of a hundred years the Greenhouse represented for all citizens a place of work and humble but important activities, passed down to several generations of gardeners up to few decades ago. During the winter, the Greenhouse premises were used to maintain some rustic species particularly sensitive to cold but also, at a certain point, for the production and propagation of many other plants later used to decorate the municipality flowerbeds in Lido and Venice as well as the Venetian aristocratic ballrooms in the occasion of meetings, parties and events. At the beginning of 1990s the use of the Greenhouse was discontinued and it slowly fell into decline in the following ten years. Thanks to an accurate restoration, the Municipality of Venice brought back the ancient beauty of the Greenhouse in the aim of maintaining its original use, as well as to ensure its public access through botanical and naturalistic activities that involve both local community and institutional bodies, promoting at the same time culture, learning and encounters.