Castello, Venice

There had been, since at least the 8th-century, small settlements of the islands of San Pietro di Castello (for which the sestiere is named).

This island was also called Isola d'Olivo From the thirteenth century onward, the district grew around a naval dockyard on what was originally the Isole Gemini.

The land in the district was dominated by the Arsenale of the Republic of Venice, then the largest naval complex in Europe.

A Greek mercantile community numbering around 5,000 in the Renaissance and late Middle Ages was based in this district, with the Flanginian School and the Greek Orthodox Church of San Giorgio dei Greci being located here, of which the former comprises the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice[1] and the latter is now the seat of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy.

More recently the island of Sant'Elena has been created, and more land drained at other extremities of Castello.