The Fondaco dei Turchi in Venice: Voyage of people and concepts

The institution of the Fondaco dei Turchi is a unique phenomenon in early modern Christian Europe. The funduq is a medieval Levantine concept of mercantile hospitality and foreigner control that managed to take root only in Venice with the institution of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. However, it was the Fondaco dei Turchi that after 1574 saw the greatest renegotiation of Venetian practices and imported concepts. Envisioned to host all Muslims coming to Venice, the building needed to respond to their different housing and religious needs while limiting contact with the locals. From the get-go, Venetian authorities were made aware of the particular eating, sleeping, and hygienic customs of their guests, along with the more general need for (commercial) accessibility, safety, and privacy. To resolve this problem, public interpreters (dragomans) were employed as consultants and after lengthy negotiations the first fondaco was instituted in 1579 in the refurbished Osteria all’Anzolo on the Rialto. In 1621, it was moved to the lavish Pesaro palace on the Canal Grande, better known precisely as the Fondaco dei Turchi. After its accommodation and refurbishment, the palace was separated externally from the city, and internally into two parts between the Asian and European Muslims. Relatively standardised living and storage units were put into place and the building was furnished with stoves, fireplaces, sleeping benches, toilets, baths,and a sewage system, while even a prayer room was set up in the 1750's. Thus a Venetian palace was enriched with aspects of Muslim housing culture imported indirectly through mediated cultural transfer, producing a space both of hospitality and segregation.