This public archive, active from January 2003, is intended to keep, catalogue and evaluate Mestre, Marghera, the Venetian mainland’s audiovisual heritage.
It offers 12 stations for individual consultation endowed with 21 inch TV screens, DVD and VHS players, and headsets; a computer station with access to an informative catalogue for guided research and consultation of the Istituto Luce’s archive which preserves about 200.000 pieces of information.

“Mestre Novecento. Il secolo breve della città di Terraferma. Storie e trasformazioni urbane” è il titolo della mostra inaugurata il 26 ottobre 2007 al Centro culturale Candiani, a Mestre. Un itinerario tra immagini fotografiche, cartografie informatizzate, documenti originali, plastici, oggetti, video e film per ripercorrere le tappe delle trasformazioni territoriali che hanno portato alla struttura attuale della città.

The municipal tower of Mestre is the only remaining tower amongst the fifteen that surrounded the ancient Castello di Mestre (better known as Castelvecchio and Castelnuovo), along the defensive walls.  It is endowed with a clock from the XVI century and preserves a town gateway, the so-called Porta della Loggia (porta della Loza), now half concealed behind a building of more recent times.

The very first information about Mestre’s history goes back to an ancient myth that traced its foundation down to Mesthle, son of the king of the Eneti population, who had escaped from Troy with Antenore. 
Although many theses have been advanced regarding the city’s foundation, it is sure that it was initially a Roman castrum, then it became Castelvecchio fortress (Castrum Vetus), witnessed by the recently restored Torre Civica, visible from Piazza Ferretto.
The town’s origins moreover, interweave with the ‘river Mestre’, nowadays called Marzenego, from which it might draw its name.  Along the river banks there was intense commercial activity and the first ports where born: Cavergnago port, on the river’s mouth; Mestre port, along the northern limit of Castelvecchio (Candiani square); St Lorenzo port (now via Poerio), market of oxen (Forte Marghera).