Venice Carnival Museum
The Venice Carnival Museum, inaugurated in 2026, showcases over one hundred works, including paintings and rare porcelain sculptures, offering a fascinating journey through the history of the Venetian Carnival.
Planning your visit
The Venice Carnival dates to the twelfth century and reached its extraordinary eighteenth-century form under the declining Republic, when masks were worn for months at a time and permitted a suspension of rank that the state tolerated and the church did not. Napoleon banned it in 1797; it was revived in 1979.
The Carnival Museum gathers over a hundred works around that history — paintings of masked Venice, rare porcelain figures, costume, and the mask types with their fixed meanings: the bauta that allowed eating and drinking unrecognised, the moretta a woman held silent by a button in her teeth, the plague doctor's beak.
Mask-making is a genuine Venetian craft still practised by a handful of workshops, and the museum distinguishes it from the imported stall trade.
It operates year-round. Allow an hour. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Venice Carnival Museum?
Venice Carnival Museum is in Venice, Italy.
How long should I allow for Venice Carnival Museum?
Allow an hour. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Venice Carnival Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
