Mestre (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmɛstre]) is a borough of the comune of Venice on the mainland opposite the historical island city in the region of Veneto, Italy.

Administratively, Mestre forms (together with the nearby Carpenedo) the Municipalità di Mestre-Carpenedo, one of the six boroughs or districts of the comune.

It remained so under the subsequent period of Austrian rule (it also incorporated Carpenedo e Marocco) and under the Kingdom of Italy.

Three years later, a Royal Decree incorporated Mestre and some other neighbouring townships (Chirignago, Zelarino, and Favaro Veneto) into the comune of Venice.

[5] Since then, attempts have been made to regain autonomy in four referendums in 1979, 1989, 1994, and 2003, but in each instance, the proposal for separating Mestre from Venice was rejected.

[6][7] In the 1960s and 1970s, Mestre experienced a population boom, fuelled mainly by constructing a large industrial zone in nearby Marghera.

[citation needed] Donna Leon's third Commissario (inspector) Guido Brunetti mystery novel The Anonymous Venetian (1994), aka Dressed for Death, starts with a battered body found behind a slaughterhouse near Marghera — just inside the border of Mestre.

The staff of the local inspector is considered inadequate, so Brunetti is assigned to lead the investigation of the Mestre police.

[10] In 2019, Italian-German singer Marco di Colonia released an album dedicated to Mestre's life and the people.