The Zecca on the Grand Canal. Right side of the Biblioteca Marciana side street.
Venice's Zecca or Mint (Italian, Venetian: Zecca = Mint House) is a 16th-century building at the mouth of the Grand Canal behind St. Mark's Square in Venice. The first Venetian coins were struck in the early 9th century in a building in the commercial heart of the city near the Rialto bridge. Between 1536 and 1545, the new Zecca was built for a classicist design by urban architect Jacopo Sansovino near the Dogepaleis in the financial and political center. The underlining was performed in a rustic style to give the building a powerful look. The upper floor was added between 1558 and 1566.
In 1870, Venetian coins were slaughtered in the Zecca. The currency, since 1284 called the ducato, was called the zecchino (plural: zecchini) from 1554-1559, to be translated as "coin", "coin house" or "gem of the coin house". Since 1904, the building has housed the collection of books and manuscripts of the adjacent Biblioteca Marciana, built between 1537 and 1554 by the same architect and by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1582, towards Canal Grande. Literature
45° 25′ 59″ NB, 12° 20′ 21″ OLwiki
