A Venetian island for sale with a Napoleonic fort at its centre has come to market with an asking price of €5.5 million, according to the Lionard Luxury Real Estate listing. The island of Crevan, covering 1.4 acres in the northern Venice lagoon, is smaller than a standard football pitch and sits approximately seven kilometres from Venice’s main island.
The price, not disclosed in initial press materials, is confirmed by Lionard’s own listing at €5,500,000, with a total built area of 215 sqm. For that sum, a buyer acquires what the agency calls an “enchanting oasis of peace and beauty”, and a slice of Franco-Austrian military history thrown in for good measure.
Two Centuries of History Behind the Venetian Island for Sale
Crevan was constructed in 1806 by French forces during the Napoleonic era, designed as a strategic outpost to defend the northern lagoon from the Austrian empire. The occupation was short-lived: by 1815, Austria had taken control, and the island passed to the Italian state in 1866 following the annexation of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy. It served a military purpose until after the First World War.
After years of neglect, a private buyer restored the buildings. The Napoleonic fort itself has been converted into a four-bedroom villa, ringed by manicured lawns, a vegetable garden, fruit gardens and mature trees. A private mooring along the island’s internal canal and a helipad complete the picture.
The property is listed jointly by Lionard Luxury Real Estate and Dimora Italia Real Estate, the exclusive Christie’s International Real Estate representative in Venice. Lionard’s founder and chief executive, Dimitri Corti, put it this way in a press release: ‘Crevan offers the privilege of withdrawing from the world without ever leaving the universal allure of Venice. What one acquires is not simply a residence and a piece of land, but space, privacy and an entire landscape to preserve.’
It is a pitch that leans on geography as much as bricks. According to The Messenger, Crevan lies about five miles from Venice, close enough for a quick boat ride to Burano or Torcello, far enough to escape the cruise-ship crowds entirely.
Stiff Competition in the Venice Lagoon Property Market
Crevan is not the only private island currently testing buyer appetite in the lagoon. The Times reported that Isola Santa Cristina, a 72-acre island, is listed at €24 million (approximately £20.7 million), making it a different category of purchase altogether.
Isola Santa Cristina has been in private hands for more than four decades. According to CNN, the island was purchased in 1986 by Gernot Langes-Swarovski, great-grandson of Swarovski Crystal founder Daniel Swarovski, and is now being offered to market for the first time since then. The estate includes a nine-bedroom, nine-bathroom villa, a heated saltwater swimming pool, a farmhouse, a chapel, a private vineyard, an olive grove and orchards. Venice Sotheby’s International Realty is handling the sale.
A third option, an octagonal island near the Venice Lido dating to the 1500s, originally built as a defensive post by the Republic of Venice, is also available, though pricing has not been disclosed publicly.
My read is that the Venice lagoon is quietly becoming one of the world’s more unusual luxury property markets. The combination of historical gravitas, genuine scarcity and lifestyle cachet puts these islands beyond straightforward price comparison. Mansion Global covered Crevan’s listing alongside comparable European island sales, and the context makes the €5.5 million ask look, if anything, restrained for what it offers.
The real question is whether a buyer exists who wants the romance of Napoleon’s lagoon without the scale of Swarovski’s. At 1.4 acres and four bedrooms, Crevan suits a particular kind of retreat, intimate, self-contained, deliberately removed. The moment a second serious bidder materialises, that undisclosed price could move fast.
