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| The basilica of Santa Maria dell'Assunta, first built in 639, expanded in 826 and finally rebuilt in 1008. |
Friday October 8, 2021
The Torcello museum complex consists of the 10th century basilica (Santa Maria dell'Assunta), the12th century Santa Fosca, and two Palazzos from this original city square, now housing archives and artifacts from Torcello's history.
The museum describes itself on its website: "Torcello Museum tells the story of an island which was already a point of arrival and place of trade between the sea and hinterland as early as the1st century AD, a sort of early port for the Roman city of Altino, connected to the most important ancient road links with eastern and northern Europe: the Via Annia and the Via Claudia Augusta. Inhabited, with port and trading facilities and integrated into the economic system of the Roman Empire, Torcello expanded further during the centuries of the invasions and formation of the Roman‑Barbarian kingdoms, it offered the mainland population a safe place to live and form a larger community which reached its maximum size in the 10th century. Torcello was thus the lagoon city,before Rialto and Venice, a flourishing place dedicated to trade."
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| The building on the left, the Palazzo dell'Archivo, was built in the 12th century |
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| The Palazzo del Consiglio has its origins in the 4th century, where Torcello's council of nobles met. |
Torcello was thriving a millenium ago, with a population between 10,000 and 35,000 people, benefiting from close ties with Constantinople and the remains of the Roman empire. Today, its numerous palazzi, twelve parishes and sixteen cloisters have all disappeared - from plagues, from malaria and from the silting of areas of the lagoon. In the 1700's the population was down to 300 - mostly farms and orchards, and today less than a dozen people live here. |
| Many artifacts from Torcello's early days are kept outside - in an open air museum |
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| This stone chair is commonly call the throne of Attila the Hun (it's not), and everyone wants their photo in it. |
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| Sculptural artifacts salvaged from old palazzos, piazzas and others are kept in the archives section of the museum |
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| This little girl ?, angel? ghost? could offer someone a bit of a surprise. |
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| The Palazzo dell'Archivo |
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| An outside arcade of the church of Santa Fosca |
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