VÉNÉTIE - ARZANA

City state in the Divine Comedia of Dante, Arzanà (Arsenal) is the shipyard’s previous name of Venice Republic.

Today, this non-lucrative association objective is to rescue, study and preserve the Venetian naval heritage.

Founded in 1992 during “les Fêtes maritimes de Brest”, Arzanà is composed of thirty members along with collaborators and supporters. The last twenty years, the Association has saved from the destruction about fifty traditional small boats of all kinds (fishing boats or wooden boat, sailing boat or rowing boat). It has also purchased equipment, tools and other objects which have an historical and ethnographic interest from squèri (work site) and from craftsperson who no longer work. At the end, this legacy is meant for the Museo nazionale della Civiltà dell’acqua, which should see the light of day in the previous buildings of the Arsenal.

A huge part of Arzanà’s collection comes from salvage, accidental discoveries or private donations. The association deals with an old shipyard mentioned for the first time at the 15^th century and active until 1920.

Its collection is extremely diverse: barche da seragiànti, batèle, batelóni, bragàgne, bragozzi, sciopòni, topi, puparìni, gondolas (one from the 18^th century) or replicas as well as other kinds of boats which no longer exist and are sometimes the only copy of their type. 

Ten of those ships, restored according to traditional methods, are kept operational and are made available for members and supporters as part of cultural initiative.

Venice 45° 26' 23'' North – 12° 19' 55'' East - 1.485 kms from Vannes

www.arzana.org