The Seven Venetian martyrs.
OPPOSITE THE PUBLIC gardens is a sad and mysterious monument. A sculpture of a female partisan, sprawling at the water's edge with her hands up to her face, is dedicated to the seven men who were shot nearby by the Nazis on August 3rd, 1944 bringing to the end a dreadful seven days that saw the exec...
A confused story of four minor Saints.
SO FEW PEOPLE look up. In England these days, with all the grim, modern shop fronts it is almost impossible to age a building without looking at the first floor level and above. Fortunately there is no such problem in Venice but even then visitors miss so much by not looking up to see what is often...
The Patron Saint of Cobblers
EVERYONE MUST KNOW that Saint Mark is the patron saint of Venice. What very few people know is that he is also the patron saint of cobblers. Many pass through Campo San Tomà without ever giving the old Scuola dei Calegheri a second glance, but you should because this is the old guild of shoe makers...
The Accursed Apostle
UNLESS THE PAINTING is of the Last Supper Judas Iscariot is seldom included in any religious representations, usually being replaced by Saint Matthew. Amongst the family of stone-cutters who created the statues on the exterior of the church of Madonna dell’Orto was one Paolo Delle Masegne, the son o...
The shocking death of Governor Bragadin
THE CHURCH OF Santi Giovanni e Paolo was begun by Dominican friars in 1246. There are 21 doges buried here but the most appalling death occurred to one who is remembered in an altar on the right hand side of the church, Marcantonio Bragadin. The fresco shows his dreadful fate in Famagusta in Cyprus...
The Medallion of the Emperor
WE HAVE COME to see just one thing. Just a few steps to the right hand side of the Church of San Pantalon is the small square (Campiello) of Ca' Angarini, named after a wealthy family from Piacenza who once lived here. What we are looking for is the big, round, stone medallion clipped to the wall. W...
A Stern end for General Michiel Malpaga
THE HOTEL PALAZZO Stern ( http://www.palazzostern.it/en ) has a dark secret. Before it was rebuilt in the early 1900s as a private residence for German art collectors named Stern it was known as Ca' Michiel. Michiel was General Captain Fantino Michiel who had worked in various roles for the Venetian...
The grisly sausages of the Riva di Biasio
IT IS ONE of Venice's most shocking tales. Just one vaporetto stop from Santa Lucia railway station on the Santa Croce side of the Grand Canal is the Riva di Biasio ( http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/actv/riva-de-biasio.htm ). It is named after a local butcher called Biasio Cargnio or Cargnico, s...
The Fighting Bridges of Venice
LOOK CAREFULLY. Look very carefully at the bridge just the other side of the floating vegetable barge the next time you are in Campo San Barnaba in Dorsoduro. It's the bridge that crosses into the Rio Terra Canal leading into Campo Santa Margherita. On each corner on the top of the bridge you will n...
The Statue of a Loyal Ghost
WE CAN SEE the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi from the entrance to the gardens on the Rio Terra Garibaldi. But we are not here to admire the man called the father of the Italian nation but rather a small soldier who guards his back. His name is Giuseppe Zolli who in 1860 was one of 1,000 red-shirted s...
The Sad tale of the Fisherman and his Mermaid.
A LONG TIME ago a fisherman named Orio lived in Castello. Every night he would get into his little boat and cast his nets off the shores the Lido and this one night he felt something extremely heavy in them. Then he heard a plaintive cry, 'Help me, help me, help save me from your nets.' It was the c...
Welcome to my Venice
NOW HERE IS the thing. Venice, apart from a few, relatively new, hideous additions such as Cassa di Risparmio bank in Campo Manin, the grisly Hotel Daniele extension on the Riva degli Schiavoni and the truly ghastly Piazzale Roma parking area and bus station, is magnificently unspoilt. So, if it is...