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.

Originally called Piazza Grande or Maggiore, in 1900 it was dedicated to the memory of King Umberto I di Savoia, assassinated in Monza.  After the Second World War it was dedicated to the memory of Erminio Ferretto, a partisan killed by the fascists in 1944.  Historically, the square developed an external area from the fortified core of the town in the 1500s, and for centuries it was nothing more than the ‘road’ of St Lorenzo’s village and a useful link between Venice and the mainland.
This function stopped the modernization process of the area for a long time. 

The ancient corporation of the Battuti, located behind St Lorenzo’s Cathedral, is the only corporation (or school, as they were called in Venice) in Mestre and was established in 1302 by the confraternity of St Mary of the Battuti.

The theatre was erected at the beginning of the 1900s under engineers Giorgio Francesconi and Mario Fabbris’ supervision.  Originally the structure could hold about 1000 spectators.  The interior was wooden and decorated with plaster, ornaments,  boxes and a balcony.

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.