The Museum
Formerly a monastery with a church annexed to it, built in 1351 and then rebuilt after the war of Chioggia is now the Museum of the Lagoon and seat of the Historical Archieves of the city.
The Museum of San Francesco fuori le mura (outside the old city wall), it is easy to be reached.
You can arrive by car, taking the 'SS 390 Romea' road, direction Porto (Harbour). The regional bus from Venice or Padua stops a few metres away from the entrance and the city bus stop in front of it.
There are a lot of parking places as well, and so the visit to the museum can be a good lead-in for a further visit of the city. Indeed as soon as you cross the town gate of 'St. Mary', visible from the museum, you are already in the lovely town of Chioggia.
The structure
The city Museum is distributed over the three floors: the ground floor is attended to the archaeological part and it is restricted to the period from the 11th century BC to the 6th century AD.
On the first floor there are findings from the 12 th century BC to the 18th century AD, and the historical city archieves.
At laste the second floor aims to give to the visitors an overall view of the local maritime affairs, the shipyard and the fisheries beginning from the 8th century.
The entrance is situated at the east side of the building on 'Campo Marconi'. On the southern side you can see the old cloister of the Franciscan Monastery. During some escavations and renovations of the building, human rests were found, probably of the ancient monks. Entering the Museum, the cashdesk is on the left hand of the two wooden doors, which devide the entrance from the exhibition rooms. Near the ticket counter, the tourist information (APT) will soon open a service in order to inform the tourists about hotels, camping sites and other touristic structure in Chioggia.
