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| venetian lagoon |
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The lagoon and the islands
Venice is surrounded by innumerable islands which the inhabitants have adapted to their needs through the centuries, turning them into: bulwarks of defence against the sea, fishermen's villages, lonely places of hermitage for monks, places of asylum for the sick and burial grounds for the dead. There are those also which have been made to flourish as vineyards and vegetable gardens through the tireless industry of the Venetian people, and others in which they have created and given splendour to the wonderful industries of glass and lace.
The Lagoon of Venice covers an area of more than 500 kms. It is fed today by the constant ebb and flow of water from the open sea, the Adriatic, principally through two mouths at the ports of San Nicolò di Lido and Malamocco to which can be added at the present time another at Chioggia. Through these three opening which give access to Venice from the sea, merchant ship and men-of-war come and go. Having entered the Lagoon (in order to reach the Pool of San Marco or the docks) they follow deep navigable canals where a series of bricole (wooden piles and lights) provide easy means of identification to steer by.
The Venetians have understood from the most remote times that all their efforts must be concentrated on keeping in existence this water on which their city has risen and which represents the essential element of life, health and prosperity.
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| Lagoon |
South Lagoon |
Torcello
Torcello welcomes us with the gay sweetness of its fertile gardens. In the middle of the island stand the last vestiges, the few evidences of what had once been the stern civilization of long ago centuries, among which is the Cathedral.
All the signs of its power and prosperity (churches, houses, palaces and monasteries) have disappeared, dispersed and swallowed up by the mud, but the recollection of its ancient vicissitudes crowd upon us. When the Roman population of the Veneto mainland fled from the savagery of the Huns and the Longobards between the 5 th and 7 th centuries, to find refuge and defence on the islands on the lagoon nearby, Torcello and the other islands round received most of the refugees from Altino. In 638 the Bishop of Altino transferred the seat here, bringing with him the Holy Remains and reliquaries.
TO SEE :
The Cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, must have been founded, according to a precious inscription preserved inside, at the time of Heracleus Emperor of Byzantium, in 639, by order of Isaac Hexarch of Ravenna. What you see of the church today dates from its first expansion in 824 and rebuilding in 1008. It is therefore about the oldest Venetian monument to have remained relatively untampered with. The three apses have a Romanesque quality, the magnificent Byzantine mosaics (12 th and 13 th centuries) are fascinating. On the western wall is a vast mosaic depicting the Last Judgment. The greatest treasure is the mosaic of the Madonna in the half-dome of the central apse, the figure is one of the most stunning works of Byzantine art you will see in Italy.
Beside the Basilica stands the Church of Santa Fosca, a XI – XII centuries building on a central plan.
The Lagoon Museum has been arranged in the two Palazzi del Consiglio and dell'Archivio since 1887; some smaller works, some of which are of particular historic and artistic interest, have been collected here.
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| Torcello |
The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta |
Burano
Burano was once included in the town area of Torcello and had periods of great prosperity, mostly owing to its lace industry which made its name famous all over the world. But with the decay of every kind of activity in Venice about at the end of the 18 th century, the people of Burano suffered for the whole of the 19 th century years of poverty and hard life. Now this little town of fishermen, farmers and lace-makers is gradually acquiring new wealth through a more intensive cultivation of its fields, its sea and its needles.
Burano is a pretty village, its streets and canals lined with bright, pastel-coloured houses. The bonbon colours apparently have their origins in the fishermen's desire to see their own houses when heading home from a day at sea, and gay colours are certainly engaging.
TO SEE:
The Museo del Merletto is Burano's lace-making museum.
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| Torcello |
A street of Burano |
Sant'Erasmo
Sant'Erasmo was long known as the orto di Venezia (Venice's garden) and its 1000 inhabitants remain largely dedicated to rural pursuits. Apart from green fields and a couple of settlements you can see the Torre Massimiliana, a 19 th century Austrian defensive fort in the southeast.
TOO SEE:
Maximilian's tower , built by the Austrians between 1843 and 1844, stands on the site of the previous fort that the French had previously built at S. Erasmo in 1811 – 1814. Surrounded by a water-filled moat, and by an irregular polygonal embankment, it defended the southern shoreline of the S. Erasmo area, with its entire length facing the mouth of the Lido harbour. The tower is the only example of a cylindrical fortified “Maximilian tower” in Italy and forms a variation of the 27 Maximilian towers with blockhouses, at the entrenched camp at Linz, which were decreed by Francesco I on 2 February 1831, and designed by the Grand-Duke Giovanni Massimiliano.
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| Maximilian's tower |
Foreshortening of Sant'Erasmo |
Sources:
Giulio Lorenzetti, Venice and its lagoon, historical-artistic guide, Edizioni Lint, Trieste, 1994.
Damien Simonis, Venice condensed, 1st edition, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Australia, 2002.
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venetian lagoon