Rio Tera Lista di Spagna Site Features

The lista itself

The street is named for a strip of white Istrian stone laid into the paving in front of an ambassador's residence, marking the exact line where his diplomatic immunity began. Venice used these liste to fix jurisdiction on the ground rather than on paper -- inside the strip, the Republic's police had no authority.

A name with two dead things in it

Rio terà means a filled-in canal; lista di Spagna means an embassy boundary. The street is named after a waterway that no longer exists and a diplomatic post that was abolished in 1797. Nothing the name refers to is still here.

Where the embassies were kept

The Republic deliberately housed foreign ambassadors away from its own seat of government, which is why the Spanish embassy stood in this corner of Cannaregio rather than near St Mark's. Suspicion of foreign envoys is written into the map.