Giovanni Scalfarotto - architect

Grandiose church renovation is one of Venice’s best-known sights

The church of San Simeon Piccolo is situated
opposite Venice's Santa Lucia railway station

Giovanni Scalfarotto, a Venetian architect remembered essentially for just one project, was born on this day in 1672.

The son of a bricklayer, Scalfarotto spent much of his career as a site foreman or supervisor around Venice and nearby towns, usually involved with relatively minor restoration work, although he advised on the domes of San Giorgio Maggiore and San Marco as a consultant.

The exception was his work on the church of Saints Simeone and Giuda Apostoli, also known as San Simeon Piccolo, on the Grand Canal, in a restoration project that spanned 20 years between 1718 and 1738 and created what is today arguably one of Venice’s most recognisable visual symbols. 

Likely originally to have been a three-nave basilica built parallel to the canal, the church was transformed under Scalfarotto, who created a central rotunda beneath an enormous oval dome in green copper topped by a temple-shaped lantern, accessed through a Corinthian portico mounted on a flight of steps leading to the water’s edge.

The design had echoes of the Pantheon in Rome, of Antonio Palladio’s Redentore in Venice and his Tempietto in Maser, Baldassare Longhena’s Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice and the twin churches of Piazza del Popolo in Rome, designed by Carlo Rainaldi.

When the age of the railways reached Venice with the construction of Santa Lucia railway station in the 1860s, the position of San Simeon Piccolo on the Grand Canal, directly opposite the entrance to the station, meant that for hundreds, and ultimately thousands of tourists who arrive in Venice by train every day, it was the first thing their eyes were drawn to as they stepped out into the sunshine.

Given that he was in his 40s when he began work on the church and had only a relatively modest career behind him, many experts have cast doubt on whether the design can be reliably attributed to Scalfarotto.

The twin churches of Piazza del Popolo in Rome
possibly influenced the design of San Simeon Piccolo

But even if he had been merely executing ideas put forward by others, the successful completion of a project of such complexity was a notable achievement in itself.

Scalfarotto - sometimes spelled Scalferotto or Scalfurotto - was born in the parish of San Pantalon, the second son of Tommaso, a bricklayer originally from Valmarino, about 80km (48 miles) north of Venice, in the province of Treviso.

By his early 20s, Giovanni Scalfarotto was himself working in Venice as a bricklayer or mason. His training was probably provided by his father and his older brother, Bartolomeo. He is thought likely to have become interested in architecture and design through his friendship with Andrea Musalo, a Greek mathematician, engineer and architectural theorist who was based in Venice.

His career appeared to move to another level after he had travelled to Rome in 1711 with a group of Baroque artists and craftsmen that included Domenico Rossi, a Swiss‑Italian architect whose major designs included the magnificent, sculpturally theatrical façade of the church of San Stae, the Jesuit church of Santa Maria Assunta and Ca’ Corner della Regina.

On his return to Venice, Scalfarotto began to take on bigger projects involving his own designs, although few of them saw fruition. He also married Domenico Rossi’s daughter, Caterina, with whom he had three children. When Caterina died, he was married for a second time to Marina, daughter of the architect Andrea Tirali, who recommended him to be elected as ‘proto’ of the monasteries - a kind of master builder or chief engineer in charge of appraisals and reports on the state of churches and monasteries in Venice.

Scalfarotto’s name is engraved on the internal architrave of the portico in front of church of San Simeon Piccolo, which remains known as such even though the nearby church of San Simeone Grande was dwarfed by the 'smaller' church's rebuild. 

It is known that, in 1721, he was appointed foreman of the restoration project at San Simeon Piccolo by the church chapter, raising doubts about his role as an independent designer of the building. There are suggestions that, as foreman, he may have received suggestions about design from his client and drafted the project based on those ideas, rather than executing his own original ideas. 

Information about Scalfarotto in later life became sparse, although it is known that, between 1748 and 1750, after having lived in the parish of Sant’ Agnese in a house possibly owned by Andrea Musalo’s brother, he moved to Santa Maria Formosa, where he lived comfortably until his death in October, 1764. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria Formosa.

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, with its church
of the same name, offers a taste of Venetian life

Travel tip:

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, at the heart of the parish where Giovanni Scalfarotto spent his later years, is one of Venice’s most atmospheric squares, one in which the city’s layers of history bump into daily life in a generous open space. It is rare among squares in Venice, often tight and enclosed, in that it opens out in multiple directions, creating a sense of breadth and light that feels unexpected in the dense fabric of Castello. Palaces sit shoulder to shoulder with humbler residential buildings amid the commanding presence of the church that gives the square its name. The church of Santa Maria Formosa, where Scalfarotto is buried, is said to have been founded in the seventh century and rebuilt in the 15th century as a landmark of early Renaissance architecture in Venice. The church is unusual in having two façades, each addressing a different side of the square, one serene and classical, the other more theatrical, adorned with sculptural flourishes.  The Campo feels like a crossroads of Venetian life, with children playing, local people going about their daily business and visitors enjoying a break from the crowds of Piazza San Marco, which is barely five minutes’ walk away. 

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Castelbrando, which now contains a luxury hotel,
stands guard over the village of Cison di Valmarino

Travel tip:

Valmarino - Cison di Valmarino to give its full name - is a village about 40km (24 miles) north of Treviso in the characterised by arcaded streets, stone houses, and a landscape shaped by vineyards and wooded hills. It sits at the foot of the Prealps along the Strada del Prosecco, and today is recognised as one of I Borghi più belli d’Italia and a Touring Club Bandiera Arancione destination. Its position gives it a distinctive blend of Venetian, Alpine, and agricultural character. The village was once the seat of the historic County of Valmareno, which included two castles and 20 villages. From 1439 it belonged to the Brandolini family, who shaped the area’s political and architectural identity for centuries. Part of their legacy is perched above the village on a limestone ridge in the shape of Castelbrando, one of Veneto’s most imposing castles, enclosing nearly 2,000 years of history. Today it functions as a hotel, museum complex, and cultural venue, accessible by funicular. The village lies in the heart of the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG zone, with numerous cellars offering tastings. Local food specialities include spiedo, a traditional slow‑roasted meat dish cooked for at least seven hours, and local speciality biscuits called Buzholà.

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More reading:

Andrea Palladio, the stonecutter who became a giant of architecture

How Giorgio Massari built on Palladio’s legacy in Venice

The magnificent Venetian church built to commemorate deliverance from the plague

Also on this day:

1598: The birth of astronomer Giovanni Riccioli

1923: The birth of tenor Gianni Raimondi

1927: The birth of soprano Graziella Sciutti

1954: The birth of racing driver Riccardo Patrese

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Antonio da Ponte – architect

Builder who designed the most enduring image of Venice

Da Ponte's Rialto Bridge, completed in 1591, is
one of the best known images of Venice

The designer Antonio da Ponte, sometimes called dal Ponte, who is remembered for creating one of Venice’s most celebrated landmarks, the Rialto Bridge, died on this day in 1597 in his home city.

The Rialto Bridge over the Canal Grande (Grand Canal) has appeared in countless paintings and photographs of the city over the centuries since it was completed in 1591 and it is now a popular spot from which to take photographs when visiting the city.

Ponte’s design for the stone bridge, a broad single arch span covered with arcaded shops, won him a competition held in Venice in 1587 and it also ensured him a place in the history books.

Previously, a wooden bridge, Ponte da Moneta, built in 1178, was used as the way of crossing the Grand Canal at its narrowest point, but this bridge collapsed and had to be rebuilt several times over the centuries.

The Venetian authorities decided to replace the wooden bridge with a more permanent structure and held a competition for the design for the new bridge in 1587. 

Da Ponte’s idea for a bridge made out of stone was eventually picked as the winner by the judges acting on behalf of the Venetian authorities, who were led by the Doge at the time, Pasquale Cicogna.

When it came to constructing his design, Da Ponte was helped by one of his relatives, Antonio Contin, sometimes referred to as Conte, who went on later to design the famous Bridge of Sighs - il Ponte dei Sospiri - in Venice.  

Da Ponte had previously worked on other building projects in Venice, including warehouses, a hospital, the Doge’s Palace, and the Arsenal. 

Da Ponte, a respected designer, built
the bridge after winning a competition 

Documents from the time show that his opinions as a builder and designer were respected by the Venetian authorities.

Between 1577 and 1592, Da Ponte collaborated with Andrea Palladio on the construction of the Church of the Redeemer on the Giudecca, which was built by Venice to honour a pledge made after the plague of 1576 in the city came to an end.

Even though many other proposals for rebuilding the Rialto had been made by famous architects at the time, Pasquale Cicogna still chose to announce a competition, which he then decided to repeat after all the designers who entered suggested a classical design with many arches.

After the second competition, it is believed Da Ponte’s design was chosen by the Doge over the one submitted by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi because Da Ponte had proposed building a bridge with a single arch.

The new Rialto Bridge, built of stone and looking exactly as it does now, was completed by 1591. Da Ponte was in his seventies by then but was able to look proudly on his work for a few more years. 

Da Ponte was in his early eighties when he died. He is buried in the Church of San Maurizio, which is in the San Marco sestiere of Venice.

The English playwright William Shakespeare, who is known to have been fascinated by Italy, may have read about the newly-built Rialto Bridge. In his play, The Merchant of Venice, there are several mentions of the Rialto district in Venice, notably the famous line: ‘What news on the Rialto?’, a question that is asked by a character called Solanio near the beginning of the play.

There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited Italy himself, but he may have mixed with Italians living in London and it is known that he read books in Italian so he must have had some understanding of the language. 

The play is believed to have been written by him at some time between 1596 and 1598 and the merchant referred to in the title just happened to be called Antonio.

The Ca' Rezzonico, built in Baroque style,
is a notable palace on the Grand Canal

Travel tip:

The Canal Grande (Grand Canal) sweeps through the heart of Venice, following the course of an ancient river bed. Since the founding days of the Venetian empire, it has served as the city’s main thoroughfare. It was once used by great galleys and trading vessels, but nowadays is teeming with vaporetti - the city’s water buses - as well as water taxis, private boats, and gondolas. The palaces bordering the winding waterway bear the names of the old Venetian aristocratic families and represent the finest architecture designed for the republic over its many centuries of history. When the ambassador to Charles VIII of France visited Venice in 1495, he afterwards referred to the Grand Canal as ‘the most beautiful street in the world.’ Its most notable palaces include the gilded Ca' d'Oro, the Baroque Ca' Rezzonico, the Renaissance-style Ca' Vendramin Calergi, the iconic Ca' Foscari University, and the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

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The former Church of San
Maurizio is now a museum 

Travel tip:

The Church of San Maurizio in Venice, where Antonio da Ponte was buried, was rebuilt in the sixteenth century on the site of a previous church in the Campo di San Maurizio in the sestiere of San Marco. The church was modified again in 1806 by the architect of Teatro La Fenice, Gianantonio Selva. It has now been deconsecrated and is home to the Museo della Musica, a museum dedicated to the Baroque music of Venice, which displays examples of period instruments and documents relating to Vivaldi and other Venetian composers of the same period.  The Artemio Versari collection of instruments recounts the golden epoch of stringed instrument making in 18th century Venice. Visitors can experience the sound as well as the sight of these instruments. As well as Venetian instruments, there are examples by such makers as Amati, Guadagnini and Goffriller, among the greats in Italy’s proud tradition of luthiers. 

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More reading:

Vincenzo Scamozzi, an architect whose legacy can be seen in Venice and Vicenza

Andrea Palladio, the humble stonecutter who became architecture’s biggest name

Jacopo Sansovino, the Florence-born designer whose masterpiece competes for attention with the Doge’s Palace

Also on this day: 

43BC: The birth of Roman poet Ovid

1898: The birth of society jeweller Fulco di Verdura

1934: The birth of football coach Azeglio Vicini

1940: The birth of racing driver and entrepreneur Giampiero Moretti

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Vincenzo Scamozzi – architect

Follower of Palladio had his own distinctive style

A portrait of  Vincenzo Scamozzi
attributed to Paolo Veronese

The architect and writer Vincenzo Scamozzi, whose work in the second half of the 16th century had a profound effect on the landscape of Vicenza and Venice, died on this day in 1616 in Venice.

Scamozzi’s influence was later to spread far beyond Italy as a result of his two-volume work, L’idea dell’Architettura Universale - The idea of a universal architecture - which was one of the last Renaissance works about the theory of architecture.

Trained by his father, Scamozzi went on to study in Venice and Rome and also travelled in Europe.

The classical influence of Andrea Palladio is evident in many of the palaces, villas and churches that Scamozzi designed in Vicenza, Venice and Padua.

His work influenced English neoclassical architects such as Inigo Jones and many others who came after him.

Scamozzi's Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni
on the Grand Canal in Venice

Scamozzi was also an important theatre architect and stage set designer. He completed Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza in 1585, adding his own design for a stage set constructed of timber and plaster, using trompe-l'œil techniques to create the appearance of long streets receding to a distant horizon

Scamozzi was invited to Venice to design housing for the procuratorate of San Marco. He continued the end façade of the Sansovino Library, with its arcaded ground floor, adding an upper floor to provide the required accommodation in the Piazzetta.

Between 1569 and 1614, Scamozzi designed villas, palaces and churches throughout the Venetian Republic, often completing and reworking designs by Palladio, such as the one for Villa Capra “La Rotonda” near Vicenza.

In 1601 he continued the work of the architect Andrea Moroni after his death, by designing a new façade for Palazzo del Bò, the main building of Padua University

Scamozzi designed Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni on the Grand Canal in Venice and his final project in 1614 was Palazzo Loredan Vendramin Calergi in Venice.

His seven children had died before him, so Scamozzi left the proceeds of his estate to set up a scholarship to enable poor boys from Vicenza to study architecture.

Scamozzi's stage set at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza

Travel tip:

The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza was the last piece of architecture designed by Andrea Palladio and it was not completed until after his death. It is one of three Renaissance theatres remaining in existence and since 1994 it has been listed by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. In 1579 Palladio was asked to produce a design for a permanent theatre in Vicenza and he decided to base it on designs of Roman theatres he had studied. After his death, only six months into the project, Vincenzo Scamozzi was called in to complete it. Scamozzi’s original scenery for the theatre, which was meant to represent the streets of Thebes, has miraculously survived to this day. The theatre is still used for plays and musical performance, but audiences are limited to 400 for conservation reasons. The theatre was also used as a location for the films Don Giovanni and Casanova.

The inner courtyard at Palazzo del Bò, where Scamozzi
designed a new facade

Travel tip:

The main building of Padua University is Palazzo del Bò in Via 8 Febbraio in the centre of Padua. Vincenzo Scamozzi designed a new façade for the palace after the death of the original architect commissioned, Andrea Moroni. The building used to house the medical faculty of the university and visitors can take a guided tour of the palace and see the actual lectern used by Galileo when he taught there between 1592 and 1610.

More reading:

How Andrea Palladio became the world's favourite architect

Jacopo Sansovino - the architect of Piazza San Marco

How Canaletto captured the look of Venice

Also on this day:

1919: The birth of film producer Dino De Laurentiis

1956: The birth of Italy's 'Millionaire' Presenter Gerry Scotti

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Antonio Visentini – architect and engraver

His copies took Canaletto paintings to wider world

Visentini's engraving, a copy of a Canaletto painting, looking
east along the Grand Canal from Santa Croce

Antonio Visentini, whose engravings from Canaletto’s paintings helped the Venetian artist achieve popularity and earn commissions outside Italy, particularly in England, was born on this day in 1688 in Venice.

A pupil of the Baroque painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Visentini was commissioned by Canaletto’s agent, Joseph Smith, who was the British Consul in Venice, to produce engravings of Canaletto’s celebrated views of the city to be published as a catalogue.

Engraving itself was an intricate skill and in the days before photography anyone who could produce faithful copies of paintings or original art that could be printed on paper was much in demand.

Visentini embarked on his first series of 12 Canaletto views, mainly of canal scenes, in around 1726 and they were published in 1735.

Visentini's capriccio of Mereworth Castle in Kent

This was followed by two more series of engravings of Canaletto works arranged by Smith, which were published in 1742.  In all, Visentini copied some 38 Canaletto views, which not only furthered Canaletto’s career but his own.

Smith encouraged Canaletto to travel to England to paint views of London, while Visentini himself was engaged in collaboration with Francesco Zuccarelli, an artist originally from Tuscany, to paint capricci – idealised fantasy views – of some grand English residences, including Burlington House, a mansion on Piccadilly in Mayfair, and Mereworth Castle, a copy of Andrea Palladio’s Villa Capra – better known as La Rotonda – in Kent.

Visentini had a long association with Joseph Smith, who hired him in 1740 to renovate and redesign his residence on the Grand Canal, Palazzo Balbi, which he had hitherto been renting but decided to buy after being told the position of British Consul was to be his.

The Palazzo Giusti on the Grand Canal was
built in 1766 to Visentini's plans

Smith, an enormous admirer of Palladio, wanted the palace in particular to have a Palladian façade.  Originally built in 1582 as the residence of the Balbi family, the palace is now the seat of the president of the Veneto region and the regional council.

Further along the Grand Canal, Visentini designed the Palazzo Giusti, a four-storey structure built in 1766 for the Miani family, who would later sell it to the Coletti, who in turn sold it on to the Giusti family.  Visentini’s design features three ground-floor niches, displaying statues.

In Vicenza, Visentini painted frescoes at the Villa Valmarana, for which Gian Domenico Tiepolo painted the figures.

In the 1760s the English architect James Wyatt travelled to Venice to study with Visentini as an architectural draughtsman and painter.

Visentini, who was also the author of a number of treatises on perspective, was a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice from 1772–78. He died in his home city in 1782 at the age of 93.

The Palazzo Balbi at the entrance to Rio de Ca' Foscari

Travel tip:

Palazzo Balbi can be found on the Grand Canal at the point at which the canal makes a near-90 degree turn at the entrance to the Rio de Ca’ Foscari.  It was between 1582 and 1590 to a design by Alessandro Vittorio in a Mannerist style characterized by Renaissance and Baroque influences.  The Ca’ Foscari, on the opposite side of the Rio de Ca’ Foscari, tends to attract more attention from visitors but the Palazzo Balbi is a handsome building nonetheless.

The Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute

Travel tip:

Palazzo Balbi is in the Dorsoduro sestieri, a favourite district with many regular visitors to Venice with a rather more relaxed atmosphere, say, than San Marco, where it is possible to feel overwhelmed by the numbers of tourists.  Yet Dordosuro contains many notable attractions, such as the church of Santa Maria della Salute, the Accademia gallery, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Ca’ Rezzonico museum. The Campo Santa Margherita is popular for its late-night bars, particularly with students, who relish its more Bohemian feel.

Also on this day:

1681 - The first festival of the Madonna della Salute

1854 - The birth of Pope Benedict XV, Italy's First World War pontiff

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Titian - giant of Renaissance art

Old master of Venice who set new standards

Titian, a self-portrait painted in about 1567,
which can be found in the Prado in Madrid

Tiziano Vecellio, the artist better known as Titian, died in Venice on August 27, 1576.  Possibly in his 90s by then - his date of birth has never been established beyond doubt - he is thought to have succumbed to the plague that was sweeping through the city at that time.

Titian is regarded as the greatest painter of 16th century Venice, a giant of the Renaissance held in awe by his contemporaries and seen today as having had a profound influence on the development of painting in Italy and Europe.

The artists of Renaissance Italy clearly owe much to the new standards set by Titian in the use of colour and his penetration of human character.  Beyond Italy, the work of Rubens, Rembrandt and Manet have echoes of Titian.

Titian was enormously versatile, famous for landscapes, portraits, erotic nudes and monumental religious works.  Although it was his fullness of form, the depth of colour and his ability to bring his figures almost to life which he earned his reputation, he was not afraid to experiment with his painting.  Towards the end of his life, some of his works were impressionist in nature, almost abstract.

Born in Piave di Cadore, a village at the foot of the Dolomites, he was one of four sons of a military official, Gregorio di Conte dei Vecelli.  He and his older brother, Francesco, also a painter, moved to Venice when Tiziano was nine or 10 years old, to live with an uncle.

By the age of 12, Tiziano was working for Giovanni Bellini, the best known of the Bellini family of Renaissance painters in Venice, whose workshop was one of the most important in the city.  In around 1508 he began working with Giorgione of Castelfranco, collaborating on frescoes at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the headquarters of Venice's German merchants, situated on the Grand Canal near the Rialto bridge.

Titian's Pesaro Madonna in the
Frari church in Venice

Giorgione was such a strong influence on Titian's early work that there are a number of paintings in existence that are so similar in their characteristics they could be attributed to either painter.

Titian launched his independent career after Giorgione died in 1510.  His popularity grew rapidly and among those who commissioned him were Alfonse I of Este, Duke of Ferrara, the Duke of Urbino, the Court of Pope Paolo III Farnese, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Charles's son, Philip II of Spain.

He travelled within Italy and to other parts of Europe, including Austria, but after 1551 rarely left Venice, except for summer visits to Pieve di Cadore.  He was married in 1525 and is thought to have had three or four children, one of whom, Orazio, became his assistant but also died in the plague.  His wife, Cecilia, passed away after they had been together for only five years, and he never married again.

Titian courted controversy with the obvious eroticism of his nudes and through his friendship with the writer Pietro Aretino, a journalist whose work scandalised 16th century Italian society.  Aretino arrived in Venice at around the same time as the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, and the three are said to have become inseparable.

Around 300 of an estimated 400 of Titian's works are said to have survived.  Some are in churches in Venice and elsewhere in Italy, such as the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the San Polo quarter of Venice, where visitors can see the vivid colours of the Pesaro Madonna and the monumental Assumption of the Virgin, set behind the high altar.  There are also a number of Titians in the Church of Santa Maria della Salute on the Punta Dogana, between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal.

Venus of Urbino, a work by Titian painted in 1538,
which is on display at the Uffizi in Florence

Others are in galleries around the world, including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi in Florence, the Louvre in Paris and the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

When they do change hands it is for considerable sums.  For example, when Diana and Actaeon, one work in a seven-part series of mythological paintings for Philip II of Spain, became available, it was bought by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland in conjunction for £50 million.

Titian was buried at the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.  At first his resting place, near to the Pesaro Madonna, was unmarked, but later the Austrian rulers of Venice commissioned Antonio Canova to sculpt a large monument. Canova's own heart was buried within the monument after his death at the age of 64.

Titian's Assumption of the Virgin dominates the high altar
inside the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, often referred to simply as the Frari, is one of Venice's greatest churches, situated in Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district.  Built of brick, it is one of three notable churches in Venice built in the Italian Gothic style.  Construction began in the 14th century and took more than 100 years to complete, including a campanile that is the second tallest in Venice, after St Mark's.  In addition to Titian, the brilliant composer Claudio Monteverdi was also buried in the Frari.

Travel tip:

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute is one of the most familiar sights of Venice, one captured by many artists, including Turner and Canaletto. Its position on the narrow promontory between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal enables it to stand almost like a sentry, guarding the entrance to the Bacino di San Marco and the lagoon beyond.  It houses a number of works by Titian. Ironically, given how the artist died, it was built by the Republic of Venice as an offer for the city's deliverance from the devastating outbreak of plague that occurred in 1630, dedicated to Our Lady of Health (in Italian: Salute).

Read more:

Lisa del Giocondo - Florentine mother immortalised as the Mona Lisa

How the works of Tintoretto still adorn Venice

Books

Titian: Circa 1490-1576, by Ian G Kennedy

Titian: His Life and the Golden Age of Venice, by Sheila Hale



(Photo inside the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari by Welleschik CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Fire at La Fenice

Oldest theatre in Venice keeps rising from the ashes

The sign welcoming visitors to Teatro La Fenice,
Venice's famous opera house

La Fenice, the world famous opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire on this day in 1996.

It was the third time a theatre had been burnt down in Venice and it took nearly eight years to rebuild.

The theatre had been named La Fenice, the Phoenix, when it was originally built in the 1790s, to reflect that it was helping an opera company rise from the ashes after its previous theatre had burnt down.

Disaster struck again in 1836 when La Fenice itself was destroyed by fire but it was quickly rebuilt and opened its doors again in 1837.

The American writer, Donna Leon, chose La Fenice to be the main location in her first novel featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, published in 1992.

But in January 1996, approximately four years after Leon’s novel, Death At La Fenice,was published, the theatre burnt down again, making it front page news all over the world.

Arson was immediately suspected and in 2001 a court found two electricians guilty of setting the building on fire.

More on opera: Death of composer Giuseppe Verdi, 27 January, 1901

They were believed to have burnt it down because their company was facing heavy fines because of delays in the repair work they were carrying out. One of them disappeared after his final appeal was turned down, having been sentenced to seven years in prison. The other went on to serve a six-year prison sentence.

The fugitive electrician was arrested on the Mexico-Belize border in 2007 and extradited to Italy. After serving 16 months in prison he was released on day parole.

La Fenice was rebuilt in the same style as before at a cost of more than 90 million euros and it reopened with an orchestral concert in 2003.

The first opera performed in the rebuilt theatre was a production of Verdi’s La Traviata, staged in November 2004.

Travel tip:

Teatro La Fenice in Campo San Fantin is the oldest theatre in Venice. Its heyday was during the 19th century when the premieres of Rossini’s Tancredi and Semiramide and Verdi’s La Traviata were held there. During the Austrian occupation of Venice,  the audience threw red, white and green flowers on the stage to represent the Italian flag and shouted Viva Verdi. They weren’t just praising the composer, but using the letters of his last name as code for ‘Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia’.

Campiello Santa Maria Nova in Venice,
close to the home of author Donna Leon

Travel tip:

The writer Donna Leon, who lives in Venice, chose to put her character, Brunetti, on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from herself. She lives close to the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Cannareggio while Brunetti’s apartment is supposed to be in Calle Tiepolo near the church of San Polo.

She often describes Brunetti leaving the Questura and jumping on to a police launch that would then head out into the lagoon. But in her novel, A Venetian Reckoning, published in 1996, Brunetti has to go home urgently. Instead of going down to Riva Schiavoni and taking the Vaporetto, he knows it will be quicker to cut through the back streets to Campo Santa Maria Formosa and Campo San Bartolomeo and cross the Grand Canal on a traghetto. Two old ladies are waiting to be rowed across but he waves his police badge at the gondolier and orders him to take him to the end of Calle Tiepolo.

Browse books by Donna Leon at amazon.co.uk

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Lord Byron in Venice

Romantic English poet finds renewed inspiration

Aristocratic English poet Lord Byron and his friend, John Cam Hobhouse, arrived in Venice for the first time on this day in 1816.

They put up at the Hotel Grande Bretagne on the Grand Canal and embarked on a few days of tourism.

Byron spent first night at an hotel on Grand Canal

But it was not long before Byron decided to move into an apartment just off the Frezzeria, a street near St Mark's Square, and settled down to enjoy life in the city that was to be his home for the next three years.

Byron has become one of Venice’s legends, perhaps the most famous, or infamous, of all its residents.

Tourists who came afterwards expected to see Venice through his eyes. Even the art critic, John Ruskin, has admitted that on his first visit he had come in search of Byron’s Venice.

Byron once wrote that Venice had always been ‘the greenest island of my imagination’ and he never seems to have been disappointed by it.

He also wrote in a letter to one of his friends that Venice was ‘one of those places that before he saw them he thought he already knew’. He said he appreciated the silence of the Venetian canals and the ‘gloomy gaiety’ of quietly passing gondolas.

He found the city inspiring for his poetry and was particularly impressed with the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and the Pozzi Prison, settings that were to feature in two of his dramas, Marino Faliero and The Two Foscari.

Byron wrote: “I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand…”

The Bridge of Sighs links the palace to the prison

It is believed he went to see the Bridge of Sighs on 11 November, the first morning after his arrival in the city and actually stood on the Ponte della Paglia, the bridge that stands between the Bridge of Sighs and the lagoon.

According to Ruskin, the view he saw that day became “the centre of the Byronic ideal of Venice’.

Travel tip:

From the San Zaccharia vaporetto stop head towards the Ponte della Paglia (literally Bridge of Straw) over the Rio di Palazzo canal that separates the Doge’s Palace from the prison. If the bridge is crowded, wait for a spot by the balustrades to become free to make sure you see the same view of the Bridge of Sighs that Byron had found so inspiring.

Travel tip:

To see Byron’s first lodgings in Venice, where he conducted his affair with the landlord’s wife, Marianna Segati, look for Calle della Piscina, off the Frezzeria, which is close to St Mark’s Square. Number 1673 marks the entrance to the rooms Byron rented nearly 200 years ago.

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