The Fondaco or Fontego del Mégio (in Italian Fondaco del Miglio, also known as Depositi del Megio) is a palace in Venice, located in the Santa Croce district and overlooking the Grand Canal, next to the Fondaco dei Turchi and opposite the Church of San Marcuola of Cannaregio.
The name derives from the Venetian expressions for warehouse
(fontego) and millet (megio, Latin mileum). In 1275 and 1346, Mileum
played an important role in containing a famine in the city due to a
shortage of wheat (frumentum). However, the population demanded this
type of grain, since in their eyes only white bread was acceptable. Only
the poor and newcomers from rural backgrounds accepted dark breads. A
millet granary already existed during the famine of 1346, but it is not
clear whether this granary stood on the same site as the current
building.
By the 16th century at the latest, it was considered a
sign of a doge's complete incompetence if he had to sell millet to the
bakers, who had it ground and sold it to the population as bread. When
Doge Pietro Loredan died in 1570, the proclamation was: "El dose
mejotto, che fa vender el pan de mejo ai pistori, xe morto!" ('The
millet doge who had millet bread sold to the bakers is dead!' ) In 1569
he had the unloved grain sold.
In an emergency, the supply of the
population depended so much on the millet reserve that in 1423 the
decision was made to permanently store a quantity of 120,000 star or
staia millet. Star is a capacity measure, so that the exact weight can
only be determined approximately. 120,000 stars corresponded to around
8,000 tons. Around 4,500 tons of it had already been stored in 1275,
although it is not known whether it was in the Fontego del Megio.
Millet's unpopularity may have been related not only to the demand for
white wheat flour, but also to the fact that it was sometimes stored
poorly or for too long. In 1554, for example, it was not possible to
find more than 74,000 of the millet reserve fixed at 80,000 stars, a
significant proportion of which were already 8 to 12 years old.
In addition to the open sale of millet, there was also a hidden one.
Again and again, in order to regulate the price, people were forced to
add a little millet flour to the wheat flour, in the worst case even
bean flour. But the quality of the wheat also varied greatly, which in
the late Middle Ages led to a common division into four quality levels
from best to poor.
Some of the corridors around the building still indicate the millet
granary. For example, there is a Sotoportego del Megio on the way to
Campo San Giacomo dall'Orio, the largest square in the Santa Croce
sestiere, as well as a Calle del Megio, a 'millet alley' and a Calle
larga Fondaco del Megio. The local population could be supplied via
these narrow corridors. Otherwise, millet was shipped by boat directly
to the city's approximately 70 contract bakers, or to the houses that
were authorized to purchase and process this grain directly. These
included monasteries.
Conversion to elementary school
Today
the building houses a primary school, the Scuola primaria “Alessandro
Manzoni” with 13 rooms and a large garden at the back of the neighboring
Palazzo Priuli. In order to be able to build this school, the
municipality acquired the empty warehouse in 1922 and had the entire
building torn down, except for the facade. The boys' school was
responsible for the community of San Cassiano (San Cassan), girls were
only added in the 70s.