Greek community in Venice
The Greek community in Venice dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Republic of Venice was still formally part of the Byzantine Empire. Settled mostly in the sestiere of Castello, it reached its height in the centuries after the Fall of Constantinople, when many Greeks, including merchants, soldiers, and scholars, fled the Ottoman conquest. Tied to the Greek world through its extensive overseas possessions, the city became a major center for Greek education and the Modern Greek Enlightenment, but declined after the Fall of the Venetian Republic and the establishment of the modern Greek state.
