In recent years in Venice there have been many closures of artisan businesses. Partly due to the fact that some trades no longer attract young people as they once did, partly because Venice is increasingly becoming an open-air museum, with many Venetians leaving the city and selling their properties.
The Zanon blacksmith workshop, Paolo and Francesco, specialized in iron working and operating in Venice since 1942, aware of the cultural value of its documentary archive which attests, among other things, important collaborations with architects and designers of the caliber of Carlo Scarpa,
venerated by generations of Architects, which made the Zanon blacksmith recognized worldwide.
Francesco, the yungest of the two brothers (81 years old and still working inside the workshop), was kind enough to let me browse through his workshop, showing me many works done together with the architect Scarpa, as well as numerous books that attest many other works they have done over the years, which was once the internal courtyard overlooked by the windows of the building that houses it. The windows, although now bricked up, are still visible and they are surrounding the central part of the blacksmith workshop.
