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Venezia, 9 dicembre 2021 - With its 150 years of history is one of the most ancient foundations in Italy. Created by a venetian man, considered as forward-looking and pioneer of a system that nowadays can be defined as “welfare”.  This is the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a rare example of a house transformed into a library and a museum upon the will of the count Giovanni Querini Stampalia. An historical and cultural heritage, shaped by open-mindedness, a project that continues to be followed and taken care of.

Houses, soil, art objects, collections, furniture, coins and prints: in 1869, Giovanni Querini, last descendant of the Querini’s family, decided to leave all his belongings to the city and its citizens, in order to allow them to find a comfortable place in which study and meet, to talk about science and culture.

On the main façade, shines the work of art of Joseph Kosuth who, together with words and images triggers visitors’ thoughts over the elements that communicate with the architecture, creating a connection between the past and the modern times. A connection that, despite the several restoration works signed by Carlo Scarpa, Maria Botta, Valeriano Sartor, Michele De Lucchi, hasn’t melted. Indeed, they have transformed the palace into a school of architecture. Here, at the Fondazione Querini nothing is out of tune, everything seems to be in harmony instead, between past and future, as if time couldn’t put an end to a heritage that carries deep and important values for the citizens of Venice.

The Querini has many important supporters, between 200 and 300, and more than 100 volunteers that provide their own time and their passion for the Fondazione. Donations and legacies also play a key role in the life of the Fondazione Querini. To name a few, there are the photographic heritage of Mark Smith, Luigi Ferrigno, Graziano Arici and Luigi Ghirri.

“Venetians love this place and so very often they decide to give to the Fondazione their belongings as a gift, in order to support and enrich our collections – underlines the director Marigusta Lazzari – among the donors we can also find a foundation employee, who decided to leave all to this place”.

The Fondazione Querini is a place of discussion, aware of the changes.  A place that communicates with venetians, especially with the new generations. This concept follows the spirit of its founder: to add to the city and not to replace.

“The Querini’s of Santa Maria Formosa was one of the 12 families that founded the city of Venice, and so one of the most important that, since the beginning, had an important role in the government of the city of Venice, although it never had a Doge as a consequence to the Bajamonte Tiepolo’s conspiracy in 1310 – explains Lazzari –. The palace as we can see it now, is the result of a restoration project on the occasion of Francesco Querini and Paola Priuli’s wedding in 1528, when new structures previously built were added to the main structure.” Today at the ground floor we can find a services area while at the first one the library and, at the second one a museum-house in which original collections of the family are displayed. Moreover, on the third floor the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia is permanently displayed.

“Giovanni Querini was born two years after the fall of the Republic and so, he used to live in a very poor Venice, with huge social problems – continues the director -. He used to be an extraordinary man, of great sensitivity and very attentive to society. Eclectic and curious, a person that studied several subjects and eventually graduated in law, although he focused on managing his belongings and his family’s. At that time, he purchased in France machines that could cure specific diseases and gave them to the Ospedale Civile (Hospital) of Venice. He also was a supporter of the first experiment of public electric lighting in the city, as well as the first to provide policies to reduce the cost of textile work in the Treviso area.

Giovanni never got married nor had children, and six months before dying decided to donate all his belongings to the city by creating the Fondazione, to allow a greater number of people to have access to them. He believed that the improvement of societies laid in culture, information, training, and study. His will was that his rooms had to be left open to researchers that had to study comfortably. Moreover, services offered by the Fondazione had to be considered as additional to the ones that the city of Venice already provided. This is the mission of the Fondazione and the spirit that still guides us”.

Century after century, the heritage of the Fondazione has been partially damaged by historical events, although the Querini remains a unique treasure, considered as a museum of environment, being this a rare example of venetian family private collection, which have left a permanent sign in the city that this year celebrates its 1600 years.

What the family owned and used – wall mirrors, clocks, furniture, paintings, and pottery – is displayed on the second floor and reflects a style that has been handed down to the family descendants.

The foundation has an average of almost 50 thousand visitors per year, enjoying the masterpieces of Tiepolo, Bellini, Palma il Vecchio and il Giovane and, last but not least, an extraordinary collection of 30 works of art by Pietro Longhi which represent daily life activities.

Although Giovanni didn’t have any blood heir in his life, we can say that in one century and a half of history, he has had many daughters and sons anyway.

“This place has always represented the intentions and desires of Giovanni – concludes the director – that has entrusted to the Fondazione the duty to continue his project and for this reason, we feel responsible for continuing it for our community”.

She is considered the protector of the eyes, of opticians, ophthalmologists, electricians, and children. In some Northern cities, the 13^th December, Saint Lucia’s night is a magical night. Children cannot wait for it because, according to the tradition, the Saint brings gifts and sweets to kids who behaved well the whole year. In Venice, thousands of pilgrims go and visit her remains, preserved in the Church of San Geremia, better known as the shrine of Saint Lucia. Right in Venice, Lucia finds peace after many happenings.

The opening of the celebrations in honour of the Saint consists of the “Nova lux” concert realised by the composer and opera singer Gloria Bruni, on Saturday, December 11 at 18. An event which is part of the cultural exhibition scheduling dedicated to the 1600 years of Venice, allowing also people to see the restoration work affecting the shrine. The event comprehends the execution of different pieces of sacred music composed by Bruni, by performing as a soprano in the Lux quartet (composed of the first parts of the La Fenice Theatre orchestra) and by playing oboe, and guitar.

The history of the remains of Saint Lucia has distant roots, belonging to the 1600 years of the existence of the Serenissima. Lucia is one of the most important figures for Christian worship. She was born in Siracusa into a noble family around in 283. The young girl was betrothed to a pagan, she decides to consecrate herself to the Lord by making a vow for virginity and by expressing her decision to devolve her possessions to poor people. The same young boy who desired to marry her, reported her to the prefect. According to the tradition, the 13^th December 304, Lucia passed away by being cruelly tortured. Numerous miracles were attributed to her even before dying. For this reason, when she has survived the stake uninjured, she was decapitated or stabbed in her throat, according to Latin sources.

Her body remained for several centuries in Siracusa until 1039, when her remains were taken to Costantinopoli as spoils of war, given to the Empress Theodora by the General Maniace, who has brought Siracusa out the Islamic supremacy. In that moment, Venice comes into play thanks to the doge Enrico Dandolo during the IV crusade in 120, figure who makes Saint Lucia’s remains pick up and send towards Venice.

The remains of the Saint firstly were moved to the church located in the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. However, in 1279 during a crowded pilgrimage, the rough sea turned upside down the boats in procession to the island, by killing some devout followers. In this manner, a new idea comes up: displacing the positioning from the island to the town. Then, the senate of the Serenissima identifies the Church of Santa Maria Annunziata in Cannaregio. The 18^th January 1280, Saint Lucia’s remains are moved through a solemn procession and, therefore, the church is dedicated to the worship of Saint Lucia. 

The martyr from Syracuse could not rest forever, here either.  In 1806, by approving a Napoleonic decree, the religious community was abolished and the church and the convent were demolished between 1861 and 1863, because of the construction of a new train station. In memory of the place of worship, the new train station was called “Venice Saint Lucia”.

The remains were moved to the Church of Saint Geremia: thanks to this, the church named after San Geremia was also dedicated to Saint Lucia.

The remains of Saint Lucia could not rest in peace not even in San Geremia. In 1981 her remains were even the subject of crime news in town: on November 7, two youngsters broke the case glass and stole the remains, enveloped in red velvet. However, they leaved there her head and the silver mask covering it. For a whole month, her remains could not be found, until a New Year’s Day appeared in the Montiron sandbar in the Venetian lagoon, in a plastic bag. In this manner, the corpse were recreated 36 days later, the 13^th December 1981, when Lucia was brought to the church and repositioned in the red velvet realised by the same nuns who created her garments in the past. Eventually, in this place, the Saint is resting in peace in her new display case made of bulletproof glass and thanks to a new alarm system installation. During 900 years she has been protecting all the pilgrims, according to the inscription reported outside of the shrine: “Lucia Vergine di Siracusa in questo tempio riposa. All’Italia e al mondo ispiri luce e pace” (Virgin Lucia from Siracusa in this temple is resting. You inspire light and peace to Italy and to the entire world).

Directly facing onto Venice’s narrow canals, with their gaze toward the crowded city’s squares, and their wall painted by some of the name who fully entered the art history’s volumes, furnished with antique pieces and collectible objects displaying evidence of a lavish, luxurious, and jolly past. The majority of the hotels in Venice are hosted by some of the most beautiful and iconic buildings of the city which bear witness, throughout their fabric-covered walls, typical Venetians floors, ancient wooden doors leading to secret rooms, hidden staircases used for private meetings, and travel diaries, of legends and life moments of a fascinating past which is part of a 1600-year long city’s history.

From the oldest inn of Venice to the hotel hosting an all over the world objects collection, up until the one that allows sleeping under a ceiling decorated by one of the very first Tiepolo paintings. This, throughout Venice iconic hotels, is an imaginary journey between past and present, among the historical locations housing the accommodation structure of the city, from the most ancient to the most recent: treasures trove of history, legends and tales coming from a past that no longer exist but that keeps spreading its little tracks in these places.

Driving us during this trip is Alessandro Spada, creator and founder of the Facebook account “Hidden corners of Venice'' (counting almost 40 thousand followers, and telling the history of the secrets and hidden places of Venice) that, up to date, has collected, studied and explained to his audience the over 170 hotel of the city and the history of the building that host them, each one with its own historical/artistic features, hidden peculiarities, and unknown legends to be handed down in time. Born in Switzerland, and a keen lover of Venice and its history, Alessandro, freelance journalist, and tourist guide in Florence, eventually moved to Padua, where he still lives and spends his days studying the different sides of Venice history. What was once just a passion, an idea born almost by chance, soon became almost a mission for Alessandro, who today aims to create a stories and travel pictures’ collection, a kind of map, to be handed down in time, representing Venice historic buildings which eventually turned into hotels.

“At the beginning the hoteliers were reluctant, most of the time they left me out. But then, when they realized why I was collecting stories and oddities, I was finally able to get into their rooms and persuade them to tell me the building's history, interacting with their new life. I write what I see, and what I read in books or that they tell me walking through the building’s rooms”.

The one among Venice historical hotels is a journey across the stories of famous artists, musicians, and writers but, most of all, among common people. Indeed, it is a journey among whoever in a specific moment of its life crossed its path with the one of Venice, leaving a mark that nowadays allows us to retrace an exciting journey, throughout those places that once hosted those travelers and their stories.

You just need to cross the Rialto Bridge, making a stop in Calle Del Sturion, a side street of Riva del Vin, to experience the same joy, the laughing, and the noise of those travelers who stopped right here to drink a glass of wine in front of merchant shops facing the canals, just before taking a break in their inns. It is exactly in this place that, still nowadays, you can taste the feeling of happiness and traveling, that we find inside the oldest hotel in town, the Antica Locanda Sturion. Dating back to 1290, this place formed part of the 24 inns located in Venice city center. The date reported on its nameplate needs to be noticed, since it refers to the age of ancient inns.

“One of the most beautiful side of the inn, along with its furniture and atmosphere, which reminds the old Venice, it’s the historic nameplate- says Alessandro Spada- The inn still keeps the old nameplate realized by a Venetian craftsman, which we can also see in the canvas by Vittore Carpaccio “La leggenda della croce”, now preserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, where you can admire the historical Venetian inn and the Rialto wooden bridge, which eventually burst into flames”.

Later rebuilt in 1700^th, after being hit by the flames of the Rialto Bridge fire, the inn once took up all the building by which it was hosted, from the ground floors, used as stables for the horses and warehouses, to the upper floors that housed the rooms for overnight stays. Today, in what was once the Antica Locanda Sturion, only one floor can be reached, throughout a long and steep stairway, once made of wood, which takes us back in the past, like a time machine, right in the middle of 1200. Between lime plastered ceilings, deep-red decorated walls, wooden doors, antique pieces of furniture and windows overlooking the Grand Canal, once covered only by drapes of precious fabrics or decorate wax paper, scents, and sounds are enshrined within the streets, spreading up to the upper floors of the inn where the everyday life of the city is still present, in some ways.

The journey goes on along Riva degli Schiavoni. Here, during a walk, the landscape of Venice Lagoon acts like a perfect background, and the gaze falls over the façade of a palace that shows its name through the tiles of a mosaic. It's right in this place, where a building literally hugs Calle della Pietà, looking straight toward the Island of San Giorgio, that we find the Metropole, an eastern style hotel which houses unique ancient collections which, still today, keep telling stories of crucial men who passed through Venice. The Metropole Hotel, called “Casa Kirsch” during the nineteenth century, allows the visitor to take a step back in time, in those places that played as background during the life of some of the most important artists in history. This place has raised great interest among several leading figures from the world of art, music, and literature, charmed by its pleasant atmosphere. Among them Sigmund Freud, welcomed by the hotel in 1895, Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann, who wrote one of his most famous novels “Death in Venice” right in one of the hotel rooms. This location was also picked by the painter Jacopo De Barbieri to be the subject of one of his 1500s canvases.

The Metropole, today owned by the Beggiato hoteliers’ family, boasts a stunning collection, attracting enthusiasts and onlookers from all over the world. A huge number of objects, from old- fashioned suitcases to old fans, coming from all ages, but also clothes, corkscrews, and old locks, thanks to which the hotels keep telling a long story of past times.

“One of the most charming stories related to the Metropole Hotel is that it used to be part of the Istituto della Pietà, of which still retains relevant evidence- says Spada- on one side of the building, in fact, the so called “Porta degli Innocenti” is still present, this was used by those parents who decided to anonymously abandon their child inside the building. After ringing a bell, they had plenty of time to walk away, without anyone knowing who they actually were. Moreover, there is historical evidence that the present-day hotel bar, once hosted what previously was the chapel where Vivaldi used to teach, at the beginning of the Sixteenth century”.

Strolling along Riva degli Schiavoni, near the area of San Zaccaria, we encounter other travel stories and hidden treasures. You just need to turn your eyes toward a big white palace, and while getting closer to the entrance, just in front of the memorial dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II, you can find other important evidence of major travelers. We find ourselves at the Londra Palace Hotel, a 19^th-century building originally called “Hotel d’Angleterre”, which still today houses traces of well-known people.

“Right at the entrance of the Londra Hotel we have two big lion sculptures- says Alessandro Spada- one of them symbolizes the Lion of St.Mark’s, while the other the Lion of England, together with a special inscription dedicated to this country that, previously, gave its name to the Hotel itself. We find the same two lions inside the structure, depicted on a mosaic at the entrance of the dining hall. Moreover, it was exactly in the hall of this hotel that Čajkovskij wrote his fourth symphony, originally named “Due Leoni” (Two Lions), to honor those same two sculptures by which he was inspired. Still today, it’s possible to admire a portion of the symphony, written on a wall just at the entrance of the hotel”.

The Londra Palace has not only hosted some of the most famous personalities of all times, as the above-mentioned Russian composer, as well as Borges and Jules Verne, but it was also a crucial unit during the period of Italy’s unification. It was exactly here, in fact, that after the annexation of Venice to the Italian Kingdom, Gabriele D’Annuncio slept, the night before Vittorio Emanuele, King of Italy’s memorial was inaugurated. This bond between the hotel and Italy’s period of unification is also proved by a Savoy family’s little coat of arms still present on the front façade.

Just a little further on, staying along Riva degli Schiavoni, we can take another dip into Venice history. We’re getting in the ancient Danieli Hotel, once called Dandolo, which still nowadays preserves sections dating back to the 14^th century, as the impressive staircase that welcomes us as soon as we move into the Hotel hall and that was once located on the outside of the building, as major entrance to the main floor of the inner courtyard of the palace.

A walk further on leads us to Campo Santa Maria Formosa, the final stop of our trip among Venice historical hotels. In the end, this long and fascinating trip led us in front of the Ruffini Hotel, a place that still today, with all due respect, keeps passing on the history of the palace that has hosted it for a long time. Its façade recalls all the magnificence that lays behind its history and that, through its double front door, reminds us of an ancient and poorly known legend.

“Not everyone knows it but it is said that in 1600/ 1700 Venetians patrician families used the two main doors for a very specific reason- stresses Alessandro Spada- and this was that one door was used as main entrance for the living, while the other was dedicated to the passage of the dead”. Moreover, another fun fact, historically confirmed, it that we can find some inscriptions on the two string courses of the building, some kind of graffiti on the wall made when they were building the structure, and left by Bartolomeo Manopola in 1600, when he realized the baroque-style front façade.

We find ourselves in the sixteenth century and the Ruzzini Hotel is located within the Loredan Ruzzini Priuli Palace, which takes its name from one of the most important guests it hosted, Carlo Ruzzini, the 113^th Doge of Venice, in 1732. The front façade of the building, as well as the old gateway, find itself just in front of the canal and we can still admire the water gate, dating back to the sixteenth century. Inside the building several suites recreate the ancient atmosphere of the palace, also thanks to the renovation works recently carried out. Anyway, perhaps the most fascinating detail is hidden on the ceiling of a royal suite, which keeps captured, blended between plaster and colors, a crucial moment of Venetian art history.

If you get into one of the Hotel suites, in fact, you will find a Gregorio Lazzarini’ fresco, dating back to the early Eighteenth century, depicting the legend of Flora and Zephyr. It seems, however, that someone else helped Lazzarini with his fresco: no less than a young Tiepolo!

“Lazzarini was Tiepolo’s teacher, and he was around seven years old when his master started the Flora and Zephyr’ fresco. This was the proper age to begin working in a studio, and so now you can sleep at the Ruzzini Hotel, under a ceiling painted by a young, but already talented, Tiepolo which bears witness to one of the first works of his long artistic career”.

Our journey on the trail of ancient Venetian travelers allows us to retrace different historical periods and step into some of the places that, in distant times, led which were just some young men trying to find themselves, to become great artist, musicians and writers, inspired by those wonderful venetian palaces that, thill today, keeps talking about them.

Venice, 23^rd November 2021 – A piano, a creative mind and a pair of hands ready to untangle the not of sequential notes not imagined yet. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice decides to pay tribute to Venice’s 1600^th anniversary with the musi and the interpretative and improvisation capacities of a great exponent of the Italian piano world, Fabrizio Ottaviucci. The Italian composer comes back to Venice as a guest of Musicafoscari, project entirely dedicated to music and realised by the Venetian University. The event started in 2010 under the management of the professor Daniele Goldoni.

On Thursday, November 25, at 21.00 in Santa Margherita Auditorium, Fabrizio Ottaviucci will perform at his piano concert by playing two of the main representative musical pieces by John Cage, some passages by Giacinto Scelsi, and an improvisation by Ottaviucci in person. The show makes the audience move into another dimension, fluid and free from any musical difference and genre. The next days, the composer and improviser will be working with musician students in permanent-way workshops promoted by Musicafoscari on the topic of improvisation. This transmission of notions will be put into practice by girls and boys in a final performance open to public, on Saturday 27^th November 2021 at 18.30 in the Auditorium Santa Margherita.

On November 25, previous reservation is required for free concert entry. On November 27, enrollment is required for the final performance.

To access the two events, a valid Green Pass is needed. For further infomation visit the following website:  www.unive.it/pag/27326  

“El Paron de Casa” (the landlord), as venetians call the St.Mark’s bell tower, became the main character of the cultural project addressed to 250 children attending the year 4 of the primary school which has been presented this morning from the terrace of the bell tower, a very evocative location. Project conceived by the Lido Oro Benon association and fully developed by the Humanities Studies Department of the University Cà Foscari of Venice from 2021 to 2022, this initiative was born after having found on the San Nicolò beach in Lido, a piece of brick of the former St. Mark’s original bell tower crumbled on July 14^th, 1902. The project is carried out in partnership with the Procuratoria di San Marco, Ordine Ingegneri Venezia (the order of the engineers of Venice), Confindustria Venezia and recognized by Veneto Sostenibile (Sustainable Veneto).

The opening, on June 30^th, coincided with the day in which, 280 years ago, Pietro Grimani was elected as the Serenissima’s Doge. Moreover, on this same day in 1913, a document reporting the reconstruction of the St. Mark’s bell tower was released by engineer Daniele Donghinon the national newspaper of the Genio Civile.

"El Paron de Casa Casa" is one of the several official initiatives of Venezia 1600 (421-2021) and celebrates 110 years from the building of the new bell tower in 1912 by means of several cultural and educational activities addressed to the schools of the city with the aim of promoting sustainability. As a matter of fact, several are the objectives pursued by the project according to the 2030 Agenda and Veneto Sostenibile: n.4 quality education, n.5 gender equality, n.11 city and sustainable communities, n.12 consume and responsible production and n.13 combat climate change. The educational project will include, between 2021 and 2022, children from 9 venetian schools of the city centre, islands, and mainland, with a wide range of activities and cultural events very important from a scientific, historical, archaeological, artistic, literary, environmental, gastronomic and engineering point of view.

«We are very happy to present this project here – claimed Vittorio Baroni, President of the Lido Oro Benon association -, there was a strong participation, and everybody understood the cultural and educational aim of this initiative that will finish on October 2022 and will allow kids and teachers to rediscover the meaning of Venice, of its 1600 years of history as well as the laboriousness and genius of the venetians. The main aim of the "El Paron de Casa" is the one of allowing citizens from the islands, the city centre and the mainland, to live and rediscover the roots of the history of Venice, of its 1600 years and beyond ''.

“Gigeta” is the mascot of the event, the little girl drew by the pencils of venetian drawers Valerio Held and Maurizio Amendola. It was back in 1902, at 3 miles distance from San Nicolò in the Lido Island, that thousands of bricks were thrown at sea, parts of the enormous ruins of the original crumbled bell tower, in an event defined as the “funeral” of the symbol of the city of Venice, which was also used as lighthouse in the past and which history is long and complex.

«The wish for the 250 kids that will join the workshop activities – continued Vittorio Baroni – is that they will learn how to be little archaeologists, engineers, artisans, scholars and so to live a unique and multidisciplinary experience. Every workshop and cultural, playful and educational activity of the project El Paron de Casa will trigger effective skills, useful for a future as the real main character of the city».

Edison is the sustainability partner that joins sponsors and supporters: Meneghetti, the venetian goldsmith, Istituti Vicenza formazione, Caffè Florian Venezia 1720, Mitilla la cozza di Pellestrina, Pasticceria Milady, Pachuka Beach Club, La Pagoda, AVM SpA, Cooperativa Guide Turistiche di Venezia, Club della Gondola e delle attività remiere, Veneziane 360.

Program 2021/2022

• PICTURED BOOK OF EL PARON DE CASA: at a developing stage, it will be presented on March 2022. The illustrated story of St. Mark’s bell tower, narrated by Vittorio Baroni with drawings by Valerio Held and Maurizio Amendola. The selection of the publishing house is in process.
• “SUPER CAMPANON”: A GAME FOR PUPILS: it will be presented on March 2022. With St. Mark’s bell tower children learn the history of Venice and the goals of the Agenda 2030 by playing. Created by Vittorio Baroni, drawings by Valerio Held and Maurizio Amendola.
• SEMINAR FOR TEACHERS: will be presented on November 2021. Multidisciplinary Pedagogy Archaeology, Engineering, Art and Sustainability of the Agenda 2030 with St. Mark’s bell tower at the Epigraphy laboratories in Ca' Foscari. Preparatory training activities for school teachers participating in the educational programme.
• ST. MARK’S BELL TOWER IN SCHOOLS: activity scheduled for December 2021. The educational part of the project will be developed together with 9 schools of the City of Venice (Venice city centre, Lido, Pellestrina, Murano, S.Erasmo, Burano, Mestre, Marghera, Chirignago and Favaro). Year 4 class selection will begin on October 2021.
• THE SWEET OF THE PARON DE CASA: presented on January 2022. For the special anniversary of St. Mark’s bell tower’s 110 years, a typical sweet will be created, with 100% biological ingredients. Research for the project has already begun. Tests for the project are conducted by Milady bakery, official partner of the project.
• EL PARON DE CASA MOSAIC SCHOOL CONTEST: the project development will begin on February 2022. Every school participating on the project will create a 50X70 vertical mosaic by using tiny rests of the original St. Mark’s bell tower that were found along the beach together with shells and white pieces of wood.
• SILVER MEDAL FOR THE 110 YEARS OF THE BELL TOWER RECONSTRUCTION the project will be presented on April 2022. A new medal will be created (diameter 6 cm and weight of about 30 grams). The production will be developed in partnership with the goldsmith school of the institute Vicenza Formazione together with Meneghetti the goldsmith of Venice. The original drawing will be made by Valerio Held and Maurizio Amendola.
• CONTEST LITTLE ENGINEERS BUILDING THE BELL TOWER the project will begin on April 2022. Each participating school will project and realize a 2 meters high San Marks’ bell tower, including the angel. Building materials will have to be 100% recycled, and children may use several objects, such as shoe boxe to build bricks. Each school will customize the “Paron de Casa” with a symbol recalling their own territory. Some tiny little elements may also be added to create renewable energy in order to lighten some parts of the work. The contest will be judged by a jury 50% of technicians and 50% social media users, who will vote by means of like or love on facebook.com/elparondecasa.
• SAINT MARK’S BELL TOWER AWARD: the project will be presented on April 2022. Confectionary contest for schools participating (for families only). Goal: create a sweet representing Saint Mark’s bell tower by using ingredients and 100% biological products. For each school the participation of a bakery partner of the territory is needed. The selection and the award ceremony will be fully available on streaming from the Sala delle Stagioni at the Florian Caffè. A Jury led by Cristiano Strozzi, Florian Chef Pâtissier. Silver Lions made by Meneghetti, the venetian goldsmith’s will be used as awards.
• SCHOOLS TREASURE HUNTING THE BELL TOWER: beginning of May 2022. Little archaeologists and artisans grow. This event will be held at the al Pachuka beach club in the island of Lido, to find artifacts of the Saint Mark’s bell tower, shells, tiny pieces of wood; basically, ecological materials used to create mosaics. Participants, from the island of Santa Maria Elisabetta to San Nicolò, will be transferred by AVM 100% electric buses. A lunch with pizza and biological ingredients will follow.
• FINAL EVENT IN SAINT MARKS SQUARE scheduled for the end of May 2022. Closing party for schools, authorities, partners, supporters and sponsors in the south-east area of Saint Mark’s square, between the Florian Café and the Napoleonic area. Games and climbs over the bell tower. Once the presentation to the public will be carried out, the likes and loves competition for contests and masterpieces (mosaics and bell towers) made by the little engineers and archaeologists will begin.
• EBOOK PROJECT OF EL PARON DE CASA the project will be presented around October 2022. Ebook presentation conference with interactive material and a link to the articles on the website will be published on YouTube. The Ebook will include the whole experience of the project, the schools participating, partners, sponsors, and supporters. On that occasion, every child and teacher will be given a certificate as well as the awards for the best mosaics and bell towers.

Venice, 15^th November 2021  – Every November 21^st Venetian citizens take a long road in order to bring a church candle to the Saint Mary of Health. No wind, no rain, no snow obstructing their walk. Go and pray the Saint Mary is a must. People usually ask for personal and family protection. A slow and long procession made of people walking, together with their family or with their close friends, by crossing the traditional votive bridge floating on the water. Every year, the bridge is located between the San Marco district to the Dorsoduro district, so as to connect them. The organisation belongs to four centuries ago, since when the doge Nicolò Contarini and the patriarch Giovanni Tiepolo arranged a prayer procession by involving all the citizens who had survived the plague. The procession occurs during three days and nights, in which Venetian people are used to taking a solemn vow to the Saint Mary of Health. People decided to build a temple in her honour if the city survived the plague.

The bond between Venice and the plague is characterised by death and suffering, but also of revenge and strength. The Serenissima remembers two great plagues, which enormously marked the city. Dramatic events causing tens of thousands of dead people in a few months: between 954 and 1793 Venice registered sixty-nine cases of pestilence. The most important one happened in 1630 which lead to the construction of the Saint Mary of Health’s Cathedral, signed by Baldassarre Longhena. The Republic paid 450 ducats for it.

The plague have been spreading like wild fire. First, the San Vio district was damaged and, later, the entire city of Vencie. It was also due to the reckless merchants selling the infected garments belonging to dead people. 150 thousands citizens started to panic, the lazarets were overloaded, and infected cadavers were abandoned in the corners of the city. From the 23^rd to the 30^th, the Patriarch Giovanni Tiepolo organised public prayers over the city, especially in the Cathedral of San Pietro di Castello, ancient patriarchal residence. Moreover, the doge Nicolò Contarini and all the senate joined the prayers. On October 22, it was decided that for 15 Saturdays, a procession would occur in honour of Maria Nicopeja. The plague continued to kill people. Only during the month of November, almost 12 thousands victims were counted. While the prayers were dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the senate deliberately proposed to make a vow to build a church dedicated to the Most Blessed Virgin, called “Saint Mary of Health”, such as the vow made for the Redentore in 1576. Furthermore, the Senate established that every year, in occasion of the official day corresponding to the end of the infection, the doges have had to visit this church in memory of the gratitude towards the Virgin Mary. The first golden ducats were allocated and, in January 1632, the walls of the old houses in the area next to the Punta della Dogana started to be demolished. At last, the Black Death decreased. Almost 50 thousands victims were counted only over the Venetian territory. The disease brought all the Serenissima to its knees, by registering about 700 thousands dead over two years. The temple was consecrated the 9^th November 1689, after a half century from the diffusion of the plague. Finally, the celebration was officially postponed until the 21^st November.

The vow made is also remembered during the meal. Just for a week a year, in occasion of the Saint Mary of Health, the “castradina” can be tasted, which is a plate made of mutton as a tribute to Dalmatians. The reason why of this homage is because, during the pandemic, only the Dalmatians continued to restock the city by carrying mutton smoked meat. The shoulder and the thigh lamb were prepared almost like the current ham, by salting and massaging them with a tan made of salt, black pepper, cloves, juniper berries, and wild fennel. After the preparation, the pieces of meat were dried, slightly smoked, and hang up out of the fireplaces for forty days, at least.

As far as the origins of the name “castradina” concerns, two hypothesis exists: the first one derives from “castra”, Venetian barracks and fortress located along the islands, where food was stored for the troops and for sailors slaves in the galleries; the second one is referred to a possible diminutive of “castrà”, popular term meaning mutton or lamb meat. The cooking is quiet elaborate because it needs a long preparation. It lasts three days such as the procession reminding us the end of the Black Death. The meat is boiled three times in three days, so as to obtain its purification and to make it tender. Then, the next step is a slow cooking, lasting hours and hours, with the addition of savoy cabbages which turns it into a tasty soup.

Venice, November 9^th, 2021 – The smell of wine and roasted chestnuts, wooden spoon beating on aluminium cover pots or jars, used as drums. In Venice, pastry and bakery window shops show colourful sweets for St. Martin’s Day: big or little shortbread biscuits with the shape of the saint on a horse, and with a sword in his hand. Decorated with icing, candy, chocolate money and the typical silver balls called “broken teeth”. Kids with a paper crown on their head, walk through venetian calli singing out loud St. Martin’s song. This is how St. Martin’s Day is celebrated in Venice: busy calli full of kids who, after having sung the song, ask for a sweet or a penny to shop owners.

In Venice a church is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, in Castello, a few steps from the Arsenale. The year in which the church was established is still unknown, although many believed that it dates back to the VIII century and might have been projected and built by Longobard colonies or by families from Ferrara. According to the tradition instead, it should date back to the VI or VII century. For sure we know that the devotion to the patron Saint is rooted within the church, in which the remains of the converted knight, a tunic, a piece of finger and a shin bone, are guarded. The latter was given to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in exchange for a huge amount of money needed to restore the church. The bone was exchanged on one condition only: every 11^th of November the shin bone had to be brought back by means of a religious parade from the Scuola di San Giovanni to the Church of St. Martin. The saint can also be seen outside the church: at the top of the gable there are two sculptures of St. Martin as bishop and St. Martin as Pope, while on the right side of the church there is a sculpted low relief dating back to the XV century representing St. Martin giving his cloak to a poor man.

St. Martin’s celebrations are connected to an ancient legend in which the main character was a knight, Martin of Tours, who decided to convert to Christianity. On a rainy and cold day of November, Martin saw, along his way, a poor man, dressed in rags and trembling in the cold. Martin did not have any money and so he did not know how to help him. So, he decided to cut a piece of his cloak and give it to the beggar. After this charitable action, the sky went clear, the rain stopped and the sun began to shine, warming the air as if it was summertime – from here the name “St. Martin’s summer”, which characterize sunny warm November days. That same night, Martin had a dream: he saw Jesus on the beggar’s face. Once he woke up, he found his cloak without the cut. Martin died on November 8^th 397, and his funeral was celebrated on November 11^th, a day which marks the halfway of an internal path that every Christian does until Christmas, while in the regional Italian tradition it is a popular celebration.

So, this is how in the city of Venice, and from some years now also the venetian province, every year St. Martin is celebrated and, according to the celebrations, a sweet that was invented by venetian bakers, is prepared. In the past the traditional shape of the biscuit was little, made with a crunchy shortbread, crunchier than the one we are used to eat nowadays, topped with chocolate. Today the sweet is much crumbly and enriched with several decorations: from the icing to little colourful chocolate sweets.

In many little villages of the municipality of Venice, St. Martin’s is celebrated by recalling the “farmer’s new year”. People eat chestnuts and drink wine along the streets, in a time of the year that marks the end of the harvest and so a deserved rest from working the land. In the farming world, St. Martin’s Day celebrations are connected to the wine tradition, since in this period the new wine is taken from the barrels. From here the Italian saying “A San Martino ogni mosto diventa vino” (on St. Martin’s Day, grape must is turned into wine”).

Venice, 2^nd November 2021 – Boxes, slabs, and acetate. Historical pictures representing a no longer existing Venice, events and celebrations in the Serenissima, from the International Film Festival to the concerts in the La Fenice Theatre. Black and white photos of grand openings making history of a city which is now celebrating its 1.600 years. Fragments of daily life are scrupulously safeguarded in a photographic archive allowing to see an ancient Venice again between the 20s and the 90s of the 20^th century. This is possible thanks to the photos taken by the lens of the photographer Pietro Giacomelli. His creation, later became artistic heritage of the municipality of Venice, and thanks to the Fondo Fotografico Giacomelli.

The history of Venice is directly connected to the Giacomelli’s family, a dynasty of photographers who captured the origin of important events in the present-day Venice with their cameras. Everything begins between the XIX and the XX centuries when Giacomo Giacomelli, irredentist from Trieste hidden in Venice so as to escape from the Hapsburg police authorities. Then, after an apprenticeship period, he detects the Domenico Contarini’s atelier in San Moisè.

When he died, his son Pietro, born in the 1892, starts working by transforming the atelier into an international company. He was friend and photographer of the royal family, beyond of all the most influential and prominent figures of the industry and culture sectors. For instance, Giovanni Colpi was one them. He succeeded in obtaining highly important photo shootings during the Fascist period, in which Venice was the centre of urban and economic big deals and changes. In this manner, he could provide documentary evidence of the building of the new Scalzi bridge crossing the Grand Canal, of the new Littorio bridge between Venice and the mainland. Also he provided documentary evidence of the constitution of the new industrial area of Porto Marghera and of its urban district, the huge tourist and hotel transformations of the Lido, and the new important cultural like the Venice Film Festival and Venice Art Biennale.

Beyond the atelier in campo San Moisè dedicated to develop, print and store pictures, a photo agency was created in cooperation with the Enit (Ente Nazionale per il Turismo). The agency, on the contrary was dedicated to send printed material representing the tourist attractions and the Venetian artistic beauty all over the world.

In 1939, Pietro Giacomelli suddenly died and his business continued anyway thanks to her daughter Vera. In 1955 the atelier moved to Frezzeria, close to Piazza San Marco, where lasted until its permanent closure in 2001, after having been managed by Vera’s brother Gianni Giacomelli and by her children.

Today, a fortune of memories is remaining. More than two hundred thousand negatives with different formats are stored in the historical archive in the Celestina of the Municipality of Venice. They come from the Fondo Fotografico Giacomelli, acquired by the Municipality of Venice in 1995. It collects the majority of the material produced by the “Reale Fotografia Giacomelli”.

Daily in the Celestia, site of the archive, operations of treatment and of taking on responsibility of the material belonging to the photographic archive. This material, after being archived, is made available by means of the Album di Venezia. Often historical surprises come out, such as when a high definition slab emulsion re-emerges by showing a landscape glimpse, which is even able to bring people back to a remote Venetian time.

For example, the negative of a familiar Venetian glimpse re-emerged from an old box of slabs dedicated to artistic artifacts belonging to the antique dealer Minerbi. The glimpse represented a stretch of Strada Nuova, where now the entrance of the European Cultural Centreis is located. The picture taken by Giacomelli in 1928 clearly represents the front door of Palazzo Mora, ancient site of the antique dealer Minerbi. Moreover, it depicts the wall present on its left but now demolished, which worked as showcase information concerning the scheduling of theatres and cinemas. Through the untouched old developing solution people can immerse themselves in a distant horizon made of diversified both products and artists, such as a walking wayfarer dealing with the great cultural and artistic splendour of the 20s.

Venice, October 29, 2021- Eighty works displayed along eight rooms of the Castello Visconteo of Novara, to explain the myth of Venice, and let the visitor dip into the magic atmosphere of the lagoon city. An exhibition that brings together works of some of the greatest masters working in the lagoon city during the first decades of the Nineteenth century, who have affected, thanks to their teaching and work, the evolution of Venetian painting during the second half of the century. From October 30, 2021, to March 13, 2022, “Mets Percorsi d’arte”, Castello Foundation and the Municipality of Novara, celebrate the 1600^th anniversary of Venice, through the exhibition “The myth of Venice. From Hayez to the Biennale” (Il mito di Venezia. Da Hayez alla Biennale): a selection of the most significant works- the majority of which are unpublished, since they come from private collections- by the most famous Italian artists of the second half of the nineteenth century. An opportunity to retrace the main steps of Venetian art, from Romanticism until the birth, in 1893, of the Art Biennale which, since that date, has thrown the city into the international scene, offering her a constant and productive comparison between Italian and foreign artists.

On display five canvases by Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)- including “Venus playing with two doves” and “Portrait of noblewoman”- as well as paintings by the artists, Venetians and not, who have contributed to the transformation of the “view” perspective into the “landscape”, like Ippolito Caffi (1809-1866), Giuseppe Canella (1788-1847), Federico Moja (1802- 1885), and Domenico Bresolin (1813-1899), which was one of the first to study photography and to be appointed as official “landscape painter and photographer” by the art Academy. Professor of Landscape since 1864, Bresolin was the first to let young students paint en-plein-air, in the lagoon as in the mainland, so that they could study the effects of light and compare themselves with new and exciting environments, different from which they were used to.

In addition to this, as in a sort of small monographic exhibition, twelve works by one of the most popular and beloved Venetians landscape artist, Gugliermo Ciardi, will be exhibited, canvases that- starting from the nineteenth century- document the evolution of his painting until the early nineties. An entire room will be fully dedicated to Luigi Nono, with a focus on one of the painter’s most famous work: the “Refugium peccatorum”, as well as studies, drawings, and other significant works of comparison, such as “Le due madri” (The two mothers).

Canvases, that reflect the renewal and the change in taste in venetian painting, will also be exposed, in direct comparison with the figurative culture of the many foreign painters who were taking part into the International Art Biennale, as well as daily life scenes, dedicated to the so-called “real life painting”.