Indiana Jones Venice locations

INDIANA JONES LOCATIONS IN VENICE

Even three decades after the first lash, an iconic Indiana Jones series of adventure movies still inflames and inspires our imagination with the revelation of treasures and ancient mysteries. The first two movies have already destined our brave hero to visit Peru, the USA, Nepal, Egypt, the Greek islands, China, and India. As in the case of the 007 agent, worldwide travel became an essential part of the Professor’s adventures in the same manner of importance as his hat, whip, and spinous sense of humor.

Led by a tone of adventure, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opens with a retrospective of 16-year-old Henry Jones Jr. in a national park in Utah. He resumes his chase across the very shore of Portugal and takes a short break back home in the USA. Professor Jones receives an ‘invitation’ to join a party with James Donovan, a well-known art and history patron. This investor in the expedition to find the Holy Grail unveils a unique archaeological finding and the fact that Indiana’s father is regarded as missing. Professor Indiana Jones finds support in Marcus Brody, his close friend and companion. While the legendary soundtrack accompanies the ‘map scenes’, two adventurers lead to Venice to find Henry Jones. In the video below, I explore all the Indiana Jones Venice locations. 

BEHIND THE SCENES OF INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

The principal photography of the “Last Crusade” can be easily attributed to four months between May and September 1988. Despite the obvious 20-minute Indiana Jones Venice span in the movie, the film crew honored the famous city with one’s presence for only one day, on August 8, 1988. By the time the filmmakers arrived at ‘Aeroporto Marco Polo di Venezia’, the larger portion of the Venice scenes had been shot at Elstree studios near London. These ‘pre-Venice’ shootings included scenes in a library, in the catacombs, as well as a boat chase. Robert Watts, the producer, prevented Steven Spielberg from shooting The Last Crusade in Venice in August, at the height of the tourist season. The challenge was to depict Venice as it was back in 1938.

Facing all difficulties, the film crew visited Venice on August 8 to shoot some outdoor scenes. The local authorities succeeded in bringing the water traffic to a standstill for four hours to shoot the scene of arrival. Being experienced in recreating the Cairo of the 1930s in the first movie, the producers were concerned about the modern ‘attributes’ of the 1980s within panoramic shots of Venice, satellite antennas in particular. The virtuoso work of the cameraman with specific camera angles dispersed clouds of doubts, and world cinema has gained its famous Indiana Jones Venice locations.

INDIANA JONES VENICE FILMING LOCATIONS. GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD

Although 80% of the ‘Venice’ scenes were already shot back in the UK, the film crew selected some exterior locations to ensoul the movie with a unique Venice spirit. As is often the case with filming locations in Europe, such as Rome, Paris, Prague, and Vienna, the actual location of the sets is generally at odds with the movie order. Concerning The Last Crusade filming locations in Venice tend towards the city center yet are distanced from the Grand Canal. For instance, it takes you half an hour to cover the distance between the ‘Salute’ pier (a scene of arrival) and the Barnaba church (library exterior). And the direction of walking, depicted in the movie, varies from the actual geography of Venice. An enthusiastic movie walk along the main Indiana Jones filming locations in Venice will take approximately two hours with a significant water transport proportion. 

INDI AND MARCUS ARRIVE IN VENICE. SALUTE PIER

“AH, VENICE” commemorates Doctor Jones’ fascination after a long flight with three stops from the USA and Italy. Indiana and Marcus Brody find themselves on a pier in Venice, guessing the look of Doctor Schneider until a young woman hails two guests.

ELSA

Doctor Jones?

INDY

Yes?

ELSA

I knew it was you – You have your father’s eyes.

INDY

And my mother’s ears. But the rest belongs to you.

This first outdoor scene was a cause of great concern; only a mastery of the cameraman and the traffic stop made the authentic atmosphere of Venice real. The camera angle reveals a ‘SALUTE’ inscription referring to the existing location. SALUTE pier, a one-stop before the famous San Marco square, is included in the Venice Vaporetto route №1. The far-distance panorama of the scene captured the ‘Campanile di San Marco’ 99-meter-high tower. This very panorama has changed a little since the 1930s and August 1988, when Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade had a shooting in Venice.

It’s a matter of intrigue to notice differences within the SALUTE pier itself, which has changed a lot over the last thirty years. The modern-state pier near Palazzo Grassi is made of concrete, while the wooden one depicted in the movie has lost in size and today only takes gondolas rather than a Vaporetto (Venice water taxi). A stone-narrow promenade behind Doctor Elsa Schneider is known as Fondamenta Salute. This tight space was challenging for the film crew with all the men and the shooting devices. Unfortunately, the reverse-plan shots of Indiana and Marcus do not depict the gorgeous Santa Maria Della Salute Basilica, in fact, side by side with the movie scene. Your early movie travels along the filming locations can gratify you with an incredible sunrise.  

INDY, MARCUS, AND ELSA WALKING ACROSS THE INDIANA JONES VENICE LOCATIONS

Indiana Jones, Marcus Brody, and Elsa Schneider exchange soft words and jokes at the SALUTE pier and make their way along the narrow streets of Venice. The next scene reveals a distant panorama of our characters, walking in the line of an authentic street alongside the water artery in the very heart of a city. This second filming location is a 30-minute walk away from the pier.

INDY

Fraulein — will you permit me?

ELSA

I usually don’t.

INDY

I usually don’t either.

This cozy street alongside the water is known as Fondamenta Alberti, with its of 200 meters. The promenade has so much in common with dozens of streets of the same appearance, yet leads our central figures to the Ponte Dei Pugni bridge. Doctor Jones skilfully ‘borrows’ a flower to make Elsa smile. The bridge passes into Fondamenta Gherardini, which brings three characters to Campo San Barnaba square. Adventuring within the library and the catacombs, Indy and Elsa find their way out using a sewer hatch and run back along the Fondamenta Gherardini.

INDIANA JONES VENICE LIBRARY (SAN BARNABA CHURCH)

Making the first steps towards a cozy city square, our adventurous trio of characters wise up so that the expected-to-be-seen library looks like a converted church. Elsa confirms that she had seen Henry Jones for the last time here on his final effort to reveal a new pass marker to find the Holy Grail.

This building with a true historical appearance indeed constitutes a church with a museum nature. CHIESA DI SAN BARNABA (Church of Saint Barnaba) glorifies an early Christian Saint of the 1st century A.D., praised as the religious founder of the Cyprian Christian tradition. The site witnessed its first church back in the 9th century and was later burned down and rebuilt from scratch. Chiesa di San Barnaba gained its modern-state appearance in 1776, yet the bell tower at the back sends us back to the 14th century as one of the oldest in Venice. The spacious installation to the left once housed a gambling house for noble citizens. San Barnaba now exhibits the scientific inventions of Leonardo da Vinci.   

Minding the whole San Barnaba complex of buildings, only a square and the front side of the church are of movie interest for us, fascinated with the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie. At the moment when our brave trio acknowledged the appearance of the church, all the ‘church scenes’ had already been shot in Elstree Studios back in the UK. In this respect, the interior with its remarkable stained-glass windows and a marble floor with the X symbol is no more than a studio set and has little in common with the actual San Barnaba.

In addition to the church-library interior scenes, the catacombs were designed and built with the efforts of professional decorators. There are no underground catacombs beneath the San Barnaba square or church, and no sewer system similar to what was depicted in the movie. Even the famous sewer pitch was ‘included’ in the square for the shooting use and the famous ‘’AH, VENICE”. On the other hand, there are several cafes in the square. I have chosen one of these cafes to have my morning cup of coffee close at hand to the legendary filming location.

THE GRAND CANAL. KAZIM GOES ASHORE

It took Doctor Jones and his opponent a water chase through Venice with casualties to figure out that they are not enemies and play the same game of preserving the historical importance of the Grail. Once surviving the clash, the two men initiate a dialogue regarding Henry Jones’ destiny.

KAZIM

Let me get off at this jetty.

Ask yourself, why do you seek the

Cup of Christ? Is it for His glory?

or for yours?

INDY

I didn’t come for the Cup of Christ.

I came to find my father.

We should keep in mind that the water chase scenes were not shot in Venice. These extras were footage within the Tilbury Docks, on the outskirts of a city with the same name, to the East of London. Consequently, only a scene change gives us Venice back with the characters making their way along the Grand Canal. The camera successively shows Kazim and Doctor Jones with the Grand Canal between S. Maria del Giglio and Academia pier in the background. We can use the same water taxi №1, which has already gotten us to the Salute Pier. The distance between the first location and this one with Kazim is less than half a kilometer. The Collezione Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery in the background was later depicted in ‘The Tourist’. 

The pier is a part of the Palazzo Barbaro palace, dating back to the 15th century, and has been owned by the Barbaro family for four hundred years. Over the years, this residence was home to a gorgeous ball hall, a library, and an art gallery. The pier, which has become a part of movie history thanks to Indiana Jones, is still accessible using private water transport and the Vaporetto route №1 trims the shore so you can have some photos. Palazzo Barbaro was restored in the years since 1988, and the front side of the complex looks more luxurious than it was in a movie. ‘Ponte dell’Accademia’ bridge also gives a panoramic view over the pier a hundred meters further.  

INDIANA JONES VENICE LOCATIONS: HOTEL DANIELI

‘Hotel Danieli’ is generally described as the location that once gave its interior look, including the view from the window, to the ‘Last Crusade’ movie. Marcus and Indy analyze the sketch drawing from the knight’s tomb and reveal Alexandretta as the next passpoint on their search for the Holy Grail. A few moments later, Doctor Jones finds his and Elsa’s room in a complete mess. They communicate with playful epithets and kiss each other with a picturesque window view in the background.  

ELSA

How dare you kiss me

INDY

Leave me alone. I don’t like fast women.

ELSA

And I hate arrogant men.

When I finally found the ‘Hotel Danieli’ and circuited it in all accessible directions, I found different panoramic views varied from the movie scenes. The movie background gives us a distant panoramic view over a tower, which has much in common with two towers in Venice: Chiesa di San Pantalone and San Sebastiano. Both towers are far apart from the ‘Hotel Danieli,’ and we should remember that the film crew had only one shooting day in Venice. The most probable explanation involves Elstree Studios as the indeed set of the scene in Elsa’s room. A window view was created by combining a closer perspective of objects, such as flower pots and the background, based only on the Venice panorama.

My cinematic tour across Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade filming locations in Venice