The Venice Giardini or Giardini della Biennale is an area of parkland in the historic city of Venice which hosts the Venice Biennale Art Festival, a major part of the city's cultural Biennale. The gardens were created by Napoleon Bonaparte who drained an area of marshland in order to create a public garden on the banks of the Bacino di San Marco which is a narrow stretch of water dividing the gardens from St. Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace.
The gardens contain 30 permanent pavilions. Each pavilion is allocated to a particular nation and displays works of art by its nationals during the Venice Biennale. Several of the pavilions were designed by leading architects of the 20th century, including Carlo Scarpa and Alvar Aalto.
The gardens are also famous for the many cats which run wild in the vicinity and for some of the sculptures such as the statue of Garibaldi situated at the entrance.