The conterie were beads of pâte de verre and, in particular from the end of the 19th century, beads produced from the so-called paternostreri by cutting a hollow rod and rounding off the little cylinders produced with heat in ferrazze, or special metal containers. In 1898, a number of companies involved in the production of glass beads – a world of tiracanne, conzaureri, tagiadori, cavarobe, fregadori, lustradori, governadori, impiraresse – joined forces in the complex built Palazzo Giustinian and the Basilica di San Donato, in the heart of Murano, setting up a single large company, Società Veneziana Conterie, which between 1940 and 1970 employed more than 3000 workers, until it closed in 1993.
Today, the restored spaces of this industrial factory have become a fascinating ‘white cube’, which maintains the architectural lines of the earlier structure in the arches and trabeation, and which combines artificial and natural light from its position on the Fondamenta Giustinian.
With its open space and 7-metre-high ceiling, the new structure will offer temporary exhibitions and events on the ground floor.