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For 445 years on the 3^rd Saturday of July, the Venetian tradition enlivens the Giudecca Canal: the installation of a 334 meters long temporary floating bridge, connecting Fondamenta delle Zattere and the Basilica del Cristo Redentore located on the island of Giudecca. Two waterfronts of Venice which are usually divided by the water of the lagoon. Iconic and unfailing symbol of the Festa del Redentore, the floating walkway is presented by the votive bridge, which is always followed by celebrations, although in various guises, becoming, in more recent times, a modular structure in wood and steel that for 20 years now the Venetians are accustomed to go through as a memory of a vote for liberation from plague.

Sincerely called “Notte Famosissima” (the most famous night), the Redentore is one of the most loved events by the Venetians and, due to its spectacularism, over time it has become known all over the world. The celebration takes place every Saturday before the 3^rd Sunday of July and commemorates the end of the plague epidemic that devastated the city in the years 1575-1477, leading to the death of over a third of the venetian population. It was for this reason that on September 4^th, 1576, the Senate of the Serenissima chose to build a church in the name of Christ the Redeemer, as an ex voto to try to remove illness from the lagoon. On the day of the first Redentore, in 1577, a galley bridge was set up to reach the island of Giudecca and the new Basilica. Also here took place the first procession of the faithful, still today a fundamental part of the celebration.

Over the centuries, the votive bridge changes its appearance but not its function: the support of the galleys is soon replaced by the most practical rafts, and then between the late XIX and early XX centuries the large flat-bottomed boats, used for the transport of heavy materials such as coal and timber. After the Second World War, the bridge assumes the “military” visage of the English bridge bailey, which is composed of several steel and wood modules that allow a quick assembly and disassembly. For fifty years the second Genio Pontieri regiment, which came into possession of the structure, at every Redentore Festival has assembled it on the Giudecca Canal as a military exercise.

Declared “residuato bellico” (war remnant) in 2002, the Bailey Bridge is replaced by today’s floating route, which this year celebrates twenty years of use. The surveyor Matteo Vianello, collaborator of the Sole Responsible for the Procedure, followed the work carefully, still today as the first time.

“It is a bridge consisting of floating modules, for a total length of about 334 linear meters, while the walkway is about 4 meters wide – explains Vianello – The beginning began on Tuesday, July 5^th, and is a process that is carried out on stages and that gradually closes the Giudecca Canal. On Friday 15^th there will be the final stage, which begins at 7 am, then we will proceed to completely close the bridge at 16:15 with the passage of the last Ferry. It will be open to the public from 20.00 on Friday and will remain until midnight on Sunday, when the phase of dismantling will begin”.

The pedestrian crossing used today is the result of a careful mediation between modernity and tradition, respecting the environment that surrounds it and its 445 years of history of the Redentore Festival: the ancient boats have been replaced by floating units in polyethylene, but the floor and the handrail continue to be made of wood.

“The bridge is anchored on steel posts of sown on the bottom of the Canal”, adds the surveyor, “and on the entire parapet there is a lighting system that illuminates the walkway. Some modules have pylons that serve to make a lift to allow public transport to pass under the central passage, which has a height of 3,50 meters and width of 10 meters”.

The bridge of boats is a typical venetian tradition, and it is not unusual for this route on the water to be also used for other celebrations. “The structure is used, in addition to the Festa del Redentore, also for the Madonna della Salute and for the sport event of the Venicemarathon”, Vianello said, recalling that in November 2019 he was employed on the occasion of the Feast of All Saints and the Commemoration of the Dead, when he connected Fondamenta Nove with the cemetery of San Michele.

Brilliant, mysterious, and eccentric. In her eighties she was given the honorary citizenship and was proclaimed as the “last venetian dogaressa”. This is the title with which Peggy Guggenheim marked the history of a city that has more than 1600 years. 

Art dealing was her thing, although she did not want to be defined as an art collector. “No no – she used to say – I am a museum”. This is a completely different thing: this is culture, something useful for other people``. She used to say that art was her bad habit and, with the same ease with which she managed to catch the effort of great artists such as Kandinskji, Duchamp and Picasso, she showed fiercely her butterfly shaped glasses, the symbol of her eccentric personality as well as her Terrier Lhasa Apsos dogs. 

Peggy Guggenheim was born in New York on August 26, 1898, from a Swiss Jewish family. She was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, whose family made a fortune over the mineral and steel industry, and Florette Seligman, daughter of one of the most important families of American bankers. Peggy though, aware of her artistic eye, decided to follow a completely different path and dedicate her whole life to art and research. 

Strong and fearless, Peggy Guggenheim made her own way through art with her own hands. She became a collector, a patron of art and an example of international social life, among friends, husbands, lovers, and paintings. It all began with a job as accountant at the Sunwise Turn bookshop, owned by his cousin. Many were the artists, intellectuals, and writers who used to come here to buy a book and that’s here, among old manuscripts and creative people who draw the new artistic movements of modern history, that Peggy paved her way towards her fate. One day, in this place, that girl who was still looking for her place in the world knew a painter who changed her life forever. They fell in love, got married in Paris in 1922 and had two children: Sindbad and Pegeen, the latter a great art lover as her mother. 

With her strength and creativity, Peggy Guggenheim managed to make her dream come true. As a matter of fact, it was in 1938 that she opened her first art gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, in London and later, in 1942, she also opened the Art of This Century in New York. 

In 1942 her art collection was growing, she already owned masterpieces of Giorgio De Chirico, Paul Klee, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Mirò and, in the very same year, she saw the talent of Jackson Pollock and decided to sponsor his works by providing him a space where show his works right in her gallery. Later, she also arranged international exhibitions that led her to present her own pavilion at the Biennale of Venice in 1948. 

She was madly in love with Venice, the city of art. In Venice she bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni along the Grand Canal, where she later moved. The greatest romance between Venice and Peggy Guggenheim had begun. What used to be a home later became a museum, one of the most important museums of European and American art, with masterpieces that adhered to several artistic movements, such as: Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism. With its unusual architecture, which is different from all the other venetian palaces, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni is an unconventional place that fits perfectly for an unconventional woman as Peggy used to be. Her residence became a place for parties, shows and intellectual meetings. Moreover, she was the first who had the intuition to open the doors of her residence to visitors, in order to allow them to enjoy her art collection, anticipating what the Peggy Guggenheim collection will become later. 

“If anything can rival Venice in its beauty, it must be its reflection at sunset in the Grand Canal”, and it is in these words that we can feel how Peggy loved Venice. In 1962 in Venice she was also given the honorary citizenship and, right in the garden of her house, she was buried. 

With her extraordinary life she provided a legacy to future generations, not just an art collection. Peggy Guggenheim was an icon, a woman who decided what to do with her life. A woman that with her own hands built the future she had always dreamed to have. 

The tradition of masks is an important part of the history of Venice and its Carnival, which this year is celebrated from 12 February to 1 March and is part of the celebrations for the city's 1600^thanniversary.

Coloured, decorated, simple or more whimsical, masks are almost exclusively associated with this time of year, but in Venice, these particular ornamental objects are closely linked to the trade of the mascareri and their use has changed over the years, taking on different meanings and importance.

The charm of masks seduced Venice way back in the 13^th century, when the first disguises began to be seen in the city's calli. This new custom was brought by women from Constantinople, who used to walk around the city with their faces covered by masks: such way of dressing immediately struck everyone, in particular the Doge Enrico Dandolo. Therefore, loved or hated, masks have always been a subject of debate in Venice.

However, it was not until the 15^th century that the Serenissima officially recognised the trade of the mascareri, the craftsmen who specialised in making papier-mâché masks. This craftsmanship, handed down from generation to generation, was linked to the trade of the painters and to the work of the targheri, the craftsmen specialised in impressing painted faces on the plaster. Together, these two trades constituted one of the oldest professions in Venice, adopting a mariegola regulating their work on 10 April 1436.

The masks, made of papier-mâché and adorned with precious stones, colours and fabrics, immediately became synonymous with freedom of expression, breaking the rules of the Serenissima Republic, games, parties and the possibility of becoming whoever one wanted to be. In 1268, however, a specific law limited the use of this disguise to certain occasions, excluding Carnival and other official city festivities. For example, masks were forbidden during the so-called gioco de l'ova, in which men threw eggs filled with rose water at ladies walking through the city. Even in the days leading up to Christmas or Easter masks were not allowed in Venice, and faces could not be covered inside gambling houses or sacred places. The only exception was for girls who, from 1776, were allowed to dress up every time they went to the theatre.

In the 18^th century, the use of masks in Venice was so widespread and the demand was so high that new mascareriworkshops were set up: in 1773, the city registered 12 workshops and 31 mascareri.

Of all the masks, the one that over the years has become the Venetian mask par excellence is the Bauta, which wasa costume commonly used to go to the theatre, to cafés, to gambling houses that was worn in Venice between the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The Bauta consists of an actual mask, plus the so-called zendale, namely a cape covering the head and shoulders, and a tricorn. This type of disguise – which even distorted the voice of its user thanks to its shape near the mouth – was allowed to be used by Venetians even on certain days when the use of masks was banned in the city, such as St Mark's Day, Ascension Day and the day when doges and procurators were elected.

In addition to the Bauta, another popular mask in the city was the Moretta, an oval-shaped, dark-velvet mask of French origin that became very popular especially among Venetian ladies. The peculiarity of this mask was that it was held in place on the face by biting a small button between the teeth, thus becoming a mute mask. 

With the fall of the Serenissima in 1797, the Austrian government banned the use of the masks, and a phase of decline began until, under the second Austrian government, the use of these ornaments during Carnival was once again permitted. Even today, masks continue to be part of a widespread craft and cultural tradition in Venice, which wants to continue to tell its story.

It was 1094 when for the first time its name appeared between the lines of a document written by the Doge Vitale Falier. Two centuries later an edict of the Serenissima proclaimed it an official public holiday, making it coincide with the day before the beginning of Lent. Thus, in 1296, the most sumptuous and amusing festival of the city has been born: the Venetian Carnival. Among masks and costumes, today the city is preparing to welcome, in the year of celebrations for the 1600 years since its foundation, the celebrations to honor the anniversary that made Venice famous all over the world. 

It was a time of entertainment and celebration before the beginning of the period of ecclesiastical fasting for Easter. Venetians and foreigners poured into the streets of the city to give life parties with music and wild dances, giving vent to tensions and disconnect hidden behind lavish disguises. Around the Carnival, legends and historical events have intertwined over the centuries, finding this time of year the perfect context in which to come to life. Among these, an anniversary has been handed down over the centuries, reaching us to represent the heart of the celebrations of the Venetian Carnival: the Festa delle Marie. 

It is the story of a rapture and a ransom, an ancient celebration, which dates back to the Middle Ages, when on February 2 the religious rite dedicated to the purification of the Virgin was honored. Here, thanks to the intrinsic nature of the city, the ritual paths of religious processions could cross the lagoon canals, allowing the typical Venetian boats, the “scuale”, to touch the water of the city, retracing its fishbone from head to tail. Behind the religious tradition, a story that has become history, made up of parties and maidens, comes alive in the streets and squares against the background of a festive Venice. 

Popular tradition tells of a kidnapping, which took place in 946 during the annual celebrations dedicated to the Virgin Maria, when twelve Venetian girls about to marry were kidnapped with their gifts in front of the Church of San Pietro di Castello. 

We are in the time of the Doge Pietro Candiano III and a group of Dalmatian Pirates breaks inro the church, decorated and illuminated on the occasion of the upcoming wedding, to the general dismay. The young girls are kidnapped and robbed of their joys, jealously guarded in colored wooden boxes and specially built for the occasion, the “arcelle”. A chase is promptly organized by the Doge, who takes the role of expedition leader: the Venetians quickly reach the kidnappers near Caorle, freeing the young and redeeming the gifts. Their return to Venice is full of pride, the Doge and the liberators are welcomed by the people with great celebrations and enthusiasm: the Festa delle Marie was born.

Since then, the anniversary has been celebrated, as a perennial memory of the event, with ways and rites that have followed, changing over time. For decades it was celebrated with a long procession through the city, and then became a feast lasting eight days, made up of regattas and entertainments organized by the Serenissima until, from the middle of the fourteenth century, fell into disuse.

After seven centuries of neglect, however, thanks to the well-known director and cultural operator Bruno Tosi, the celebration was recently revived and transformed into the pivotal event of the Venetian carnival, as well as a unique opportunity to admire the costumes of tradition. In the modern version, the festival is inaugurated by a spectacular procession composed of twelve girls and over three hundred people in masks who, to recall the kidnapping and liberation of the young brides, parade from San Pietro di Castello to Piazza San Marco.

At the end of the procession, among the young women a winner is proclaimed: dressed in a magnificent costume made for the occasion, she becomes the protagonist of the famous "Flight of the Angel".

La Fenice Opera House, one of the symbols of Venice, a theatre admired all over the world and which wrote – and continues to write – pages of the city's history. Andrea Muzzati, a 60-year-old Venetian who has been working there since 1981, had just passed his high school diploma when, while looking for his first job, he heard that they were looking for personnel at La Fenice. He was hired and today, 40 years after that day, he is the key grip, responsible for positioning cameras and support equipment behind the scenes of the performances hosted by the world-famous Venetian Opera House. On the 29^th of January 1996, he was not in Venice when the place which had become a second home burned to the ground. He was on tour in Warsaw with the rest of the theatre crew.

In his eyes, however, you can still read the indelible memory of a pile of ash and burnt wood. And those same eyes, 26 years later, are still veiled in sadness and emotion. The symbol of Venice, the place he loved and which he would not have changed for anything in the world, had gone up in smoke and debris. But La Fenice, like its evocative name, rose again and in 2003 it revealed itself in all its beauty, following the motto “The way it was, where it was”. Together with the structural and scenic part, the gilding, lights and designs, Andrea's work was also reborn.

"On that terrible evening they called us and explained what had happened, but there were no mobile phones then. We were dazed: we immediately turned on the TV and saw the first images of the disaster. Those were difficult days, so far away without understanding and without seeing," he says, "we came back and there was nothing left. We couldn't understand what our future might be. Then they built Palafenice and we stayed there until 2003". Indelible memories also for La Fenice's deputy chief electrician, Andrea Benetello, who at the time of the fire was working for Viet, the company whose owner was convicted after years of interrogations and investigations.

"These are things you never forget," he says, "even today, after 26 years, when I smell something burning, it's automatically as if I were on the field that night, watching La Fenice burn. I can still hear the sounds of the weights and counterweights collapsing from 32 metres, the explosions, the glass bursting, the hallucinating sounds that made the floors shake". Benetello had just finished his shift when the fire broke out and he spent the whole evening in the field, watching the rapid destruction of the theatre, razed to the ground by high flames that threatened to burn down an entire sestiere of Venice. "As long as I was there, I imagined all that was lost," he concludes, "but we understood the gravity of the situation when the fire brigade told us that the flames were already in the Opera House and that everything would burn like a haystack". For two years Benetello told investigators everything he had done and seen, and now that story is behind him, even though it has left an indelible mark on his life.

The theatre was completely emptied, and in 2003 it was rebuilt just as it had been before, although it 'smelled' new. "The first time we went on stage and saw the room all gilded, it was a strange sensation: we were used to the old, worn-out ceiling, but this one was new, it sparkled," Muzzati explains. "The old Opera House was wonderful, it wasn't easy to get used to it again, even though they did a great job rebuilding it, especially the stage, of which there was absolutely nothing left".

The reconstruction has facilitated the hard work of all those people, like Muzzati, who work behind the scenes, but also made the theatre simpler in its internal organisation and faster in staging the works. The spaces are now wider so that the loads can be moved more easily, the weights are no longer lifted with ropes by hand but with modern winches and a computer-controlled system, and four mobile bridges have been created to transport the materials, because in Venice everything arrives by boat. Support and new technologies have improved the quality of work, even if it has been at the expense of the charm of the old craft. "The sound of the ropes and pulleys when you were pulling weights stays with me", says Muzzati, "I joined the theatre by chance, after school, when I heard they were looking for people. I immediately became a stagehand and it's a job I wouldn't change for anything else, I'd do it all again, because it's impossible to get bored here, every day there's something different. The old masters taught us so much, they knew every detail of the theatre, they loved it, and they were able to pass this passion on to us". There are currently 30 stagehands working at La Fenice Opera House, divided into teams. They are a sort of deus ex machina of the theatre, the centre from which the stage action starts, where the wings are raised and lowered with millimetric precision, where the work is mounted and dismantled.

Muzzati, who in 41 years has listened to thousands of operas and fallen in love with Tosca, who has never sat in the stalls to enjoy a performance, also addressed the damage that the high waters of 2019 have inflicted on the theatre, as well as the entire city. Water and fire for La Fenice Opera House, which has been able to rise from its ashes stronger than before.

1400 manuscripts, 42 thousand old printed books, among which rare editions of incunables and “cinquecentine”, 3 thousand engravings and more than 350 geographic maps and atlas. And a modern printed collection involving more than 400 thousand volumes. This is the heritage belonging to the Querini Stampalia Library, attended every year by approximately 62 thousand users. A friendly place for Venetian people, who consider this library as a room more added to their houses.

“Venetians are really attached to the library because it’s the place where they’ve studied – Marigusta Lazzari, the director of the Querini Stampalia Foundation – Here, young boys and girls meet each other, it is a place of feeling, heart, home. Also the architect Mario Botta came here when he was a student, because this is a clean place, warm in winter and fresh in summer, as established by Giovanni Querini. Besides, there are books that are not findable in any other site. Botta gave us his restoration project as a sign of gratitude for the years passed in here”.

In his will, Giovanni Querini left written testimony by affirming that the library would be open “every day, even during hours in which the other public libraries are closed, especially at night, so as to facilitate scholars”. His intent is still concrete thanks to a daily opening until midnight, also during feast days.

A library always making the difference, like when in 1938, after the emanation of the racist laws, it continued to maintain Jewish books in its catalogue and on the shelves, by facing the norms which wanted to abolish all of them. 

“The Venetians know the library because they are used to attending it when they are young and, then, by growing with the pass of time, they also learn to appreciate its surroundings – Lazzari adds – new members are given a museum ticket to promote their motivation to know what’s behind”.

In the 90s, the library joined the National Library System and its collective catalogue, whereby library’s data are made accessible to users from all over the world.

“10% of the modern collection is directly available in the rooms, the rest is in the storages and so accessible only through a previous request in distribution. Then, we have an important ancient collection of manuscripts, incunables, cinnquecentine, engravings, prints, and drawings. One of them is the prospective map of Venice “a volo d’uccello” by Jacopo de’ Barbari – the director goes on – the library is general and is used as a support and base when studying. Also, some sections are specialised in art and architecture, not only Venetian. It can be said that today university libraries provide for specialised demands about subjects, because they are obviously attended by students through different modalities. We also have a remarkable “periodical park”: beyond 250 yearly subscriptions available. They are magazines of different nature, from the history of literature to sciences, because the main characteristic of this place is offering something more”.

When people are studying, they can take a break in the new café or in Carlo Scarpa’s garden. People entering this garden are almost in religious silence, so as to listen the water gurgling by canalising in narrow artistic labyrinths. Here, nothing is left to chance. For example, even the essences, trees, plants and their fragrant flowers are able to mark the slow passage of seasons in a seemingly eternal place like this.

His terrestrial and celestial globes, enriched down to the last detail with all the geographical discoveries of the time, have enchanted the courts of Europe, from that of the Duke of Parma to that of Louis XIV in France. His geographical maps and encyclopaedic studies were so important in the scientific sphere that they left a tangible influence. Geographer, cartographer, cosmographer, encyclopaedist and expert in hydraulics: the multifaceted Franciscan friar Vincenzo Maria Coronelli dedicated his life to Venice, which this year celebrates the 1600^th anniversary of its foundation, making available his knowledge and technique and significantly enriching the cultural and scientific heritage of the Serenissima.

Born in Venice on 15 August 1650, Vincenzo Coronelli entered at a very young age the Franciscan order in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Trained at a time when Venice was heavily investing in culture and science, the Franciscan friar managed to combine theoretical study with the importance of cultivating important diplomatic relations.

"He was ahead of his time from this point of view," says Elisabetta Vulcano, founder of the Centro Studi Riviera del Brenta and author of the recently published book Vincenzo Coronelli: a Glimpse on the River Brenta. "He managed to put down on paper all his studies, which were based not only on books but also on diplomatic relations with personalities he met during his life at the European courts. Coronelli used his connections to get them to describe the landscape, the city and the stretch of coastline where they lived. He then created a network of valuable informants, so that he could decipher the information on paper and tell the world to those who would later travel".

Furthermore, it was thanks to his connections that the Franciscan friar was able to visit some of the most prestigious courts in Europe, first and foremost that of Ranuccio Farnese, Duke of Parma, who in 1678 commissioned him the creation of two globes, of 1.75 metre of diameter, representing the Earth and the celestial bodies. Similarly, his friendship with Cardinal César d'Estrées, the French ambassador to Rome, took him to the court of Louis XIV in Paris, for whom he made two globes almost 4 metres in diameter and weighing 2 tonnes, far superior to any made at the time. Synthetic representations of the world then known and of the sky at the birth of the Sun King, these two handwritten works, considered to be the emblem of Louis XIV's enormous power, can still be admired at the National Library of France, in the François Mitterrand building.

The fame and admiration for his work grew to such an extent that, on his return to Venice in 1684, Coronelli was appointed Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice, a title he would be proud of for the rest of his life, and was given an annual salary to continue his work.

"The Serenissima fully supported the Franciscan friar because he was an illustrious figure," Vulcano continues, "and this support would bear its fruit: Coronelli carried out many studies that he converted into maps and charts, which at the time were the most important and up-to-date because they were the result of his inclination to continue studying the territory, not only the one in which he lived. Through the network of diplomatic connections he built in Europe, he codified the information he received to produce up-to-date maps. Vincenzo Coronelli was therefore an important figure for the Republic of Venice, who passed on to posterity an incredible cartographic and geographical heritage'.

From this point onwards, the Franciscan friar was tireless: in the same year as his return to his homeland, he founded the Accademia degli Argonauti, considered the oldest geographical society in the world, he finished the first volume of the Atlante Veneto, the first work of Italian cartography and geography to be able to hold its own against the most famous Dutch atlases, and he drew numerous maps for the Serenissima, aimed at showing the Venetians the territories they had conquered in the Mediterranean. He also continued his production of globes, some of which are still carefully preserved in the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana and in the Museo Correr.

But Vincenzo Coronelli's genius was not limited to cartography and globe-making. As a consultant to the Venice Republic's Water Authority, he also designed major public works, especially in the field of hydraulics, which were later implemented, such as the Murazzi, the imposing work in Istrian stone that still extends from the Lido to the Sottomarina coastline. Until the 18^th century, in fact, the Serenissima spent a great deal of money every year to defend the lagoon from the fury of the sea storms: in the points where there was the greatest danger and damage, they tried to provide with the so-called palade, piles reinforced with stones which, however, did not last long. In 1716, Coronelli, in the appendix to his book Europa vivente, suggested a new and more stable method of defence, consisting of a wall of Istria stone blocks. As Elisabetta Vulcano points out, 'His skill lies in having analysed the context and sought solutions. He doesn't stop at a pure representation of the territory from a geographical point of view, but he skilfully studies it and the projects he does, such as the Murazzi and the series of engravings where he shows how the navigation sluices work. They are scientific plates: you lose the aesthetic aspect of the engraving, although they are also beautiful, and you concentrate on the ability to study how they work".

Even the lands of the Riviera del Brenta, considered at the time as the "great garden of Venice", did not escape the attentive eye of the Venetian friar, who studied and drew the architecture of its villas and palaces in a collection entitled La Brenta quasi borgo di Venezia, printed in Venice between 1708 and 1710 and including about 160 plates of the buildings between the lagoon and Padua. "With Coronelli we see, by comparing the palaces and villas present today, those that are still standing and those that have undergone enormous transformations," Vulcano says, "so it is a very important document from a geographical point of view. Perhaps this was the intention of the Venetian friar: not so much to give the idea that there was such an aesthetically and architecturally extraordinary waterway in the Riviera del Brenta, but to give a geographical meaning to the type of architecture that stood along the bends of the river Brenta at that time".

Coronelli's works are truly extraordinary for the era in which they were created, for the attention they paid to every detail, and for the admiration they earned throughout Europe. A tireless worker, multifaceted scholar and prolific publisher: for the Serenissima, Vincenzo Coronelli was one of those rare figures endowed with the ability, and the predisposition, to illuminate several areas of Venetian culture with their vast knowledge and mastery.

The magic of Christmas drawn by a Venetian cartoonist. The snow falls on the iconic, and loved by all, characters living in Duckburg and Mousetown which are brought to life by the hand of Giorgio Cavazzano, one of the most famous cartoonists of the Disney world who always brings a little piece of Venice in each of his works. 

For decades now the master of comic books, Cavazzano, has brought a joyful spirit in the house of people, creating the Christmas stories of those funny characters that has marked his entire career.  Characters such as Minnie, Hooch, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck or even Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, Huey Dewey, and Louie, and all the other friends living in the enchanted world of Duckburg. Giorgio Cavazzano dresses up the stories of all these Disney characters, plunging them with his technique into an enchanted atmosphere made of Christmas trees, gifts, decorations and a lot of magic. 

Among the most beautiful Mickey Mouse cover illustrations drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano we have the one dating back to 1985 in the comic’s 1569 issue: a cover with the atmosphere of yesteryear wishing happy holidays to its readers with Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and Huey Dewey, and Louie fiercely smiling while into an enchanted bubble full of gifts, colorful streamers and Christmas trees. In the issue 3038 of Mickey Mouse of 2014, Cavazzano dressed up as Santa Claus, one of the most iconic characters of the Disney world: Uncle Scrooge, taking the readers into the magical atmosphere of Christmas. Another masterpiece to mention is the cover illustration of 1994, Mickey Mouse issue number 2039, where an enchanting moment of daily life depicts Donald Duck in the shoes of Santa Claus breaking the fourth wall and watching readers straight in their face, inviting them to keep silent and do not wake up his grandchildren who sleep on the sofa pending the arrival of their gifts. Not to speak of the most recent Christmas cover illustration drawn by Cavazzano in the Mickey Mouse issue number 3135, where Minnie, Mickey, Donald Duck and Hooch stares at a sleight full of Christmas gift mesmerized and surrounded by a snowy landscape ready to give joy to all the children of the world. 

Besides Christmas, for more than 50 years Giorgio Cavazzano brings among the pages of the iconic comic book its beloved city: Venice. Cavazzano has grown up in Fondamenta degli Ormesini, in the Cannaregio district, between the “calli” of the city, in front of which was Tintoretto’s house, with the unforgettable smell of food that surrounded his neighborhood when the lunch in his kindergarten in Sant’Alvise was ready. Venice is in every corner of Cavazzano stories, and in each of those sketches that, placed side by side, bring to life the iconic characters of one of most famous comic books in history. 

We find Venice in the corners of Duckburg and in the faces of the characters living in this imaginary world. Venice is hidden in the stories of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie and in their fellow adventurers but, most of all Venice, that this year celebrates its 1600 years, is well fixed in the mind and heart of Cavazanno who, beside moving out the town at the age of 14, has always brought the city with him. 

“I always see Venice when I stare out of my window, even if for many years now, my house no longer overlooks that wonderful view- says Giorgio Cavazzano- however, in front of me I will always see the Madonna della Salute church, the Grand Canal, seagulls flying over the streets having that top view I always dreamed. I came from Venice and I always carry with me my city, in each of my drawings, because Venice has affected my whole work, and indeed, to be honest, it made it possible”. 

Its mood shifting between romantic and melancholy, this man, whose characters are very well recognizable reading one of the most iconic comic books, loved by children of all time, still remembers today, at the age of 74, the moment when he realized that his future would be to draw stories. 

“Still today I remember the precise moment when I fell in love with drawing- Cavazzano says- I was eight and I had a fever. Keeping me company there was my cousin, who was a cartoonist. He arrived with a bunch of paper in his hand and a pencil, saying “draw some ships” and so I started. That afternoon I scribbled ships on papers filled with sketches, alone in my room, and from that moment on I realized that I was going to become a cartoonist like my cousin, and spend my whole life drawing”. 

Cavazzano loves the flaws and virtues of his city, and their relationship has never changed even before difficulties. 

“I remember my father reading me books with his gloves on, since it was too cold inside our house- continues Cavazzano- Or the days when high tide forced me to help my parents to move the furniture upstairs so as not to get them ruined by the water. I have always thought Venice was charming, and quaint, even in its dark sides”. 

And it's precisely because of his love for this city that Cavazzano decided to give her the stage in some of his most beautiful stories. Venice, in fact, plays as a background in some of the most exciting adventures of the Disney world, as the one that we find between the pages of Mickey Mouse 2858’ issue, where Donald Duck plays the role of a Venetians 007, darting through the canals on its motorboat. We find Venice also in Mickey Mouse 3249’ issue, where the history of the foundation of the Gallerie dell’Accademia is told through the eyes of Minnie, Hooch, and Peg- Leg Pete. It is based in Venice also its latest project, which is ready to talk about a Viking tale taking place right between the streets of the lagoon city. The Venice Arsenale will become the main character of this new and exciting Disney adventure, which will come to life through the hand of Cavazzano. Here the characters of the iconic comic book will find themselves grappling with some mysterious messages which will appear on the lion marbles of the historic Venetian shipyard. 

The many stories already set in Venice Serenissima Republic are now joined by a new adventure: ducks and mice are often, in fact, placed among those streets and canals to face adventures looking for some lost treasure, or to save the iconic monuments of the city, to conquer the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival, or again, dressed up as Marco Polo ready to make some trouble during Venice Carnival. Paper heros, who fulfill children’s dreams, that seem to never lose the magic of those unknown worlds placed on the background of an always full of charm Venice. 

Nowadays everything is on screen, although off the stage there is a whole story to be told. From the magical lantern to the old camera, these tools are just a memory. With patience and dedication, Carlo Montanaro built this life-long archive with the very same passion that he had when he was a child and saw, for the first time, the puppet theatre. So, this is how the “Fabbrica del Vedere”, a three-floor museum hosted in a typical venetian house was born, hidden in calle del Forno, in Strada Nova, a few steps from Giorgio Franchetti Gallery, in Cà D’Oro.

Three floors full of films, cameras, publications, photos, and tools that seem to be carried from far away. Dioramas, stereoscopic viewers, the “new world”. Objects that tell a story, instruments that guard the intensity of black and white, describing the first steps of moving images, the light that filters through a cartoon to retrace the history of cinema. It is among shelves, archives and drawers that lies Venice, the city that celebrates its 1600 years and that it is still able to give, today as in the past, the message of an eternal city, admired across the whole world. “Attilio D’Este used to live here – tells Montanaro, that taught theory and mass media methods at the Accademia di belle arti in Venice, later becoming the director, in addition to also becoming teacher of film language techniques and restoration of cinema and audio-visual at the faculty of Literature and Philosophy of the University Cà Foscari -. He used to be a baker fond of cinema, and this house used to keep testimonies of the history of filmmaking as well as the period that preceded the movie era. Once he died, I decided to buy this house and everything it contained, so later, at the end of 2014, I opened this museum in which people can admire everything I used to have and all the things I have been purchasing throughout these years”. 

The archive includes several different materials that aim at proving how it is possible to see, since the invention of image reproduction. So, we begin with engravings (from Canaletto to the Veus d’optiques…), then glasses of the magical lantern, photography, the analysis, and the synthesis of movement - proved by machines used in the period that preceded the development of cinema and filmmaking -, television and, eventually, the digital. There are the experiments made by Jules Etienne Marey, the discovery of the Lumiere brothers, the fiction inventor Georges Méliès, the silent cinema and the introduction of sound and colours. There is a world that changes, a work that has changed, a language that continues to change and all this, thanks to the effort of Montanaro won’t be lost and it is, instead, ready to be known as this tiny venetian corner. 

Every year, the “Fabbrica del Vedere”, together with photographer Francesco Barasciutti, produces a calendar with a selection of materials that are guarded inside the museum. A journey that has begun in 2015 with the exhibition “Lanterne Magiche” (Magical Lanterns), which included a selection of lanterns dating back to the 1800s, and that continues still today with the presentation of the eight edition of the Calendar 2022 and the Exhibition “Cineprese” (Cameras), which can be visited until the end of February, from 5.30pm to 7pm. On display, there are tools that Montanaro used to define “machines far away from the concept of camera”, each one of those with its own history and charm, among which a camera dating back to 1903 stands out. It is through eleven machines that we can retrace the ascent of the “Tenth Muse”. Beginning with some seconds of filming, to the rechargers that allow to record from 5 to 9 minutes continuously. 

Evolving technologies also include the evolution of tools and their materials, which originally were characterisedonly by wood, later aluminium and, eventually lead. Tools that today risk to be forgotten since they are no longer used on set due to the use of cutting-edge cameras and digital technologies, which, undoubtedly, will never replace the charm of those “boxes” that guard pieces of history of filmmaking and photography. 

To know more www.archiviocarlomontanaro.com