Despite the strong interest currently focused in the area of climate change, both at research and policy levels, very little attention has so far been directed towards the impact of future change on cultural heritage: this is unacceptable neither in Europe nor in Italy, being cultural heritage a non-renewable resource to be transmitted to future generations. The seminar will present this issue from two different points of view. Dr. Cristina Sabbioni will present the results of the research coordinated by CNR-ISAC within the “Noah’s Ark” Project, funded by the European Commission. The outputs of this project are collected in the 'Atlas of climate change impact on European Cultural Heritage', which includes European-based maps related to various degradation processes and the connected climatic parameters. The results achieved highlighted the great importance of water as a threat to heritage. Direct damages are caused during times of intense rain and floods; however, in a more subtle but pervasive way, long-term damage is caused by increased rainfall, that overloads roofing and gutters, penetrates into materials or delivers pollutants to building surfaces. In the second part of the conference, Dr. Dario Camuffo and dr. Chiara Bertolin will address this issue focusing on the case of Venice, currently studied under the European project 'Climate for Culture'. The city is at risk for the sea level rise associated with the present day global warming. Models are used to predict the expected sea level rise on the large scale, but the local response is conditioned by a number of factors that should be better explored. A useful biologic index of sea level, used as a proxy to evaluate the real change, is the dark algae belt on buildings. In the specific case of Venice, a quantitative evaluation of the apparent sea level rise in the previous centuries is possible thanks to an analysis of the accurate paintings by Veronese (1571), Canaletto and Bellotto (from 1727 to 1758), drawn with the aid of the camera obscura. From the analysis of these paintings, and comparing today’s algae level with the past values, we can extend back in time for over four centuries our knowledge about the submersion of Venice. The potential impact on the Venetian palaces and the indoor cultural heritage is briefly discussed to help shaping future measures for preventive conservation.