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Sestiere “San Polo”

San Polo is located on the right bank of the Grand Canal on the promontory at the Canal’s bend, in the heart of the city.
The sestiere developed from a series of islets along the edge of the Grand Canal.
It was a swampy marshland, drained only from the 10th century. At that time traffic developed in a two-way direction: from San Toma’ to San Silvestro via San Polo and from Rialto to San Cassiano.
In the 11th and 12th centuries the whole area was drained and a wide network of roads and canals was created.
This is the age of Venice’s colonial expansion when splendid churches were erected as well as nobles’ monumental palaces along the Grand Canal (Pisani Moretta, Barbarigo della Terrazza, Grimani of San Polo, etc.).
This sestiere became, with San Marco, the economic and commercial core of the city…
San Polo was the actual commercial center of Venice with the ’emporio realtino’ (the City of the Serenissima Republic) and the main financial magistratures, such as ‘Savi alle Decime’ and ‘Banco Giro’.

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