The Canton Synagogue is one of the three synagogues located in the Ghetto Nuovo (the oldest part of the Venetian Ghetto, established on 29 March 1516), together with the Scuola Grande Tedesca and Scuola Italiana.
It was built between 1531 and 1532 by members of the local Ashkenazi community.
A stone plaque placed to the left of the bimah records the gift of 180 ducats, donated by a man named Shlomo in 1532 for the synagogue's construction.
The same date (5292 according to the Hebrew calendar) is displayed over the entrance door.

The establishment of the Canton Synagogue followed by four years that of the nearby Scuola Grande Tedesca, also of Ashkenazi rite, and may have thus been the result of an emerging division within the local Ashkenazi community.
Evidence suggests that the new synagogue might have been in fact erected by a group of Provençal Jews soon after their arrival in Venice, in a period marked by a sharp increase in the Jewish population of Venice due to immigration from nearby countries.
Provençal Jews were forced to leave en masse Arles following the annexation of Provence to France (1484), with many of them opting to settle in Italy.
Several elements seem to prove the Provençal origins of the Canton Synagogue: for instance, it was the only Venetian synagogue where the Lekhah Dodi—a hymn commonly intoned by French Jews on the eve of Sabbath—was sung.
Moreover, the synagogue's "bifocal effect" (created by the bimah and the ark facing each other at the opposite ends of the sanctuary), an arrangement rarely seen in old European synagogues, is a common feature of Provençal synagogue buildings, such as those of Carpentras and Cavaillon.

The synagogue building originally hosted both religious and social functions: the ground floor was occupied by the coffin warehouse of the Fraterna della Misericordia degli Hebrei Tedeschi, a Jewish institution which provided burial services for members of the community (replaced in the nineteenth century by the Fraterna dei Poveri), while the second floor housed the local Talmud Torah school (Fraterna sive Scuola Talmud Torah di Ghetto Nuovo).

The Canton synagogue was remodeled multiple times throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, with the most important interventions taking place in the late 1630s and 1650s, 1730s, and 1770s.
Along with the other synagogues of Venice, it ceased to be regularly used in October 1917, when the local Jewish community was forced to disband; at the same time, administration of all the Jewish places of worship was taken over by a single institution, the Templi Israelitici Uniti.

Starting in 1968, the building underwent major restoration interventions operated by the World Monuments Fund and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Environments, which included stabilization of the foundations and wall insulation.
In 1989 the synagogue was finally reopened to the public, as part of a new museum area combining together all three synagogues of the Ghetto Nuovo, as well as the Venice Museum of Jewish Art (established in 1953, now the Jewish Museum of Venice).
More recent conservation campaigns were carried out by the WMF in 2014 and in 2016-2017, with support from the David Berg Foundation.
The Canton Synagogue is one of the three synagogues located in the Ghetto Nuovo (the oldest part of the Venetian Ghetto, established on 29 March 1516), together with the Scuola Grande Tedesca and Scuola Italiana. It was built between 1531 and 1532 by members of the local Ashkenazi community. A stone plaque placed to the left of the bimah records the gift of 180 ducats, donated by a man named Shlomo in 1532 for the synagogue's construction. The same date (5292 according to the Hebrew calendar) is displayed over the entrance door.
The establishment of the Canton Synagogue followed by four years that of the nearby Scuola Grande Tedesca, also of Ashkenazi rite, and may have thus been the result of an emerging division within the local Ashkenazi community. Evidence suggests that the new synagogue might have been in fact erected by a group of Provençal Jews soon after their arrival in Venice, in a period marked by a sharp increase in the Jewish population of Venice due to immigration from nearby countries. Provençal Jews were forced to leave en masse Arles following the annexation of Provence to France (1484), with many of them opting to settle in Italy. Several elements seem to prove the Provençal origins of the Canton Synagogue: for instance, it was the only Venetian synagogue where the Lekhah Dodi—a hymn commonly intoned by French Jews on the eve of Sabbath—was sung. Moreover, the synagogue's "bifocal effect" (created by the bimah and the ark facing each other at the opposite ends of the sanctuary), an arrangement rarely seen in old European synagogues, is a common feature of Provençal synagogue buildings, such as those of Carpentras and Cavaillon.
The synagogue building originally hosted both religious and social functions: the ground floor was occupied by the coffin warehouse of the Fraterna della Misericordia degli Hebrei Tedeschi, a Jewish institution which provided burial services for members of the community (replaced in the nineteenth century by the Fraterna dei Poveri), while the second floor housed the local Talmud Torah school (Fraterna sive Scuola Talmud Torah di Ghetto Nuovo).
The Canton synagogue was remodeled multiple times throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, with the most important interventions taking place in the late 1630s and 1650s, 1730s, and 1770s. Along with the other synagogues of Venice, it ceased to be regularly used in October 1917, when the local Jewish community was forced to disband; at the same time, administration of all the Jewish places of worship was taken over by a single institution, the Templi Israelitici Uniti.
Starting in 1968, the building underwent major restoration interventions operated by the World Monuments Fund and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Environments, which included stabilization of the foundations and wall insulation. In 1989 the synagogue was finally reopened to the public, as part of a new museum area combining together all three synagogues of the Ghetto Nuovo, as well as the Venice Museum of Jewish Art (established in 1953, now the Jewish Museum of Venice). More recent conservation campaigns were carried out by the WMF in 2014 and in 2016-2017, with support from the David Berg Foundation.
Canton Synagogue