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Office recently visited the Murano workshops behind Giberto Venezia, stepping inside a world where molten glass, glowing furnaces, and centuries-old techniques continue to shape Venice’s most historic craft traditions.

Murano has remained the center of Venetian glassmaking since 1291, when the Republic of Venice moved its furnaces to the island to both prevent fires and protect the city’s closely guarded glassmaking secrets.

Words by Jacqueline Ioannidis

Today, many workshops still operate through generations of apprenticeship and hand-blown production methods that have changed little over centuries. Traditionally, young apprentices could begin learning the craft as children, spending years mastering the precision, endurance, and physical rhythm required to become true Murano glassblowers. Founded by Count Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga, Giberto Venezia approaches Murano glass less as luxury object and more as cultural preservation. Raised inside Venice’s Palazzo Papadopoli surrounded by Tiepolo frescoes, antique objects, and the atmosphere of the city itself, Giberto channels that distinctly Venetian sense of beauty into handblown glasses, decanters, mirrors, and sculptural home objects produced in collaboration with Murano artisans. Though not a glassblower himself, his practice is built through close dialogue with the island’s master craftsmen, preserving techniques that remain deeply tied to Venice’s identity. The project has also become generational: his daughters, including Vera Arrivabene, have helped carry forward the family’s broader creative universe rooted in Venetian craftsmanship, design, and tradition.