Photo Gallery

Dealing with Excess Salinity - Salt Warehouses of Venice (Magazzini del Sale)

The Salt Warehouses of Venice (Magazzini del Sale) date back to the beginning of the 15th century. They were built to store a very precious trade commodity: salt. Situated across 9 large halls, the salt warehouse could hold up to 4500 tons of salts.

As a result of its location (Venice) and its use (a salt storage) it is probably the most salty building fabric in the world. The only lime plaster capable of withstanding such an extremely salty environment is the Rinzaffo MGN Roman salt-resistant base coat. This plaster is also gentle to the historic fabric – when it reaches its end of its life, it comes off gently without damaging the underlying historic (in this case the nearly 600-year old) wall fabric.