Venice may be home to the world's oldest film festival, but the island is now officially without a single cinema after it drew the curtains on its last two privately-owned screens due to a lack of profit and spectators.

"It's the end of cinema in Venice, the death of cinema in the city of cinema and of the film festival," commented national daily La Repubblica, after the town's Rossini cinema closed down this week after a final screening of Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo's Italian comic hit, The Legend of Al, John and Jack, attended "by just a dozen spectators."

On New Year's Eve, the 74-year-old Accademia cinema, located near the lagoon city's famous bridge, had also been forced to close down because of a lack of spectators and earnings.

Venice inhabitants will now be forced to head to the mainland in Mestre if they want to catch a film. Mestre has eight cinemas including four multiplexes.

According to Venice government officials, the progressive closing down of Venice's cinemas - in 1966 the town had 18 cinemas - is a result of excessively high real estate prices which have been driving Venetians out of the lagoon for years, rather than a lack of interest in cinema on the part of locals.

"In a city where the number of inhabitants has dwindled to 64,000, and where bakeries, shoe repair shops and haberdashery stores are closing down, one can't only be scandalized by the [closure] of cinemas. All the more so because property prices in Venice are the most highly-valued and expensive in Italy," said Roberto Ellero, head of Venice's regional cinema department.

According to Ellero, the financial crisis which has struck local exhibitors is due to a lack of profits, rather than a lack of spectators. "Ironically, people in Venice go to the cinema more than in other cities. Last year, every inhabitant in Venice went to the cinema 3 times on average in a year, compared to the national average of 1.8 times," he said.

Ellero added that 176,000 paying spectators had seen films last year at the Rossini Accademia, a summer outdoor cinema and the Giorgione, a small state-run cinema club which remains open.

In the meantime, the Rossini cinema has been put up for sale for Euros3.5m. According to Repubblica, the local government hopes to buy it and turn it either into a concert hall or a swimming pool.