Venice has always been a wine-loving city: at one time water was scarce – rainwater had to be collected in wells – and so wine was often cheaper and healthier (rainwater was not entirely pure).
Of course there was a flourishing trade around wine, concentrated in the area of the Rialto market, where the place names help us to find traces of it. On the Grand Canal, near the parish of San Salvador there is the Riva del Vin, and the confraternity of sellers was in this very church.
There were many trades connected with wine, for example that of the Boteri, those who made the barrels for storing and transporting the precious liquid. In the parish of San Canciano we find Calle dei Boteri, but not only: in Campo Rialto Novo, opposite the church of San Giacometto, there are sculpted reliefs on the pillars of the arches depicting the symbols of various arts, including a barrel, because this was the warehouse used by the confraternity of Boteri, whose headquarters were in front of the Jesuit church (in the Fondamente Nove area), as the name of the square reminds us.
Perhaps the most incredible trace that this ancient trade has left in the area can be found in Calle dell’arco, at number 456: the lower part of the door is slightly widened, so that the barrels could pass through.
One last curiosity: the Boteri were obliged to repair the barrels in the Doge’s court free of charge.
