The Campiello owes its name to the presence the Sephardi and Levantine synagogues. The Jewish Community of Venice preferes the name schole, that is schools, for the synagogues, a term used throughout Europe since the Middle Ages.
The peculiarity of the whole Ghetto of Venice, particularly in this small square, is the vertical development of private homes. This particular urban form is due to an imposition of the Venetian government: with the growth of the Jewish community, which became more and more numerous, an enlargement of the area in which the ‘guests’ of the Serenissima could live was essential. Given the complex structure of Venice, the only possible route was via vertical development, achieved by adding levels to existing houses and lowering their ceilings.
The same vertical urbanization is found in the Ghettos of other European cities, such as in Frankfurt am Main.
