Mazzuccato Family and Murano Glass
Mazzuccato Family has alway been the synonymous of Murano Glass.
The passion for the Glass started when Gaetano Mazzuccato, called Gino, fell in love with this art. He was a chils but he learnt how to work the glass, until he found his company in 1958, a business still run by the family.
The skillfulness of Gino and the aesthetic taste of his wife, Tina, made grow the company through the years, keeping alive the tradition and the history of the old art of Murano Glass, and fitting harmoniuosly in the contemporaneity, thanks to the contribution of Cristiano, Gino’s son.
Story of the Glass Factory
The Gino Mazzuccato Glass Factory is located in the most beautiful area of the island of Murano, next to the Colonna bus stop, dominating the Lagoon and overlooking the city of Venice.
The seat of the Glass Factory once was the cloister and garden of the Santa Chiara monastery, one of the oldest buildings of the island of Murano. The monastery was built before the Government decree that in 1291, imposed to the Glass Masters to move the Glass Factories from Venice to Murano. Originally known as the Saint Nicolò Tower, the former Santa Chiara Monastery was inhabited by a group of Augustinians monks already in 1231. During the second half of the 14th century, Benedictines nuns moved to the monastery and then it passed to the Franciscan nuns of Santa Chiara, who gave the name to the monastery.
In 1810, under a Napoleon Decree, the Santa Chiara monastery was closed and the whole building was given to the State. The former Santa Chiara monastery has been used for different industrial purposes, from the beginning of the 19th century until the second half of the 20th century. Its strategic position, close to the port of Venice and the mainland, attracted many business men, until the Mazzuccato family bought it.
Still nowadays we can see that the building of the Glass Factory developes around a central garden, the typical shape of the former cloister of the monastery, as it is visible in the old paintings of the Venetians artists.
