Loading...Taking 3 buses to get across town is a schlep. Taking 3 boats to get to a different island is a journey. As with all public transportation, you lumber through crowded routes in a noisy vehicle making numerous stops while sleek, private crafts zoom by, leaving you, quite literally, in their wake. Fortunately, instead of the donut shops and dingy tire-repair shops of Venice Blvd, we were looking out on the islands of the Venetian lagoon and since we were going to see an island settled for over 1300 years, we were in no particular hurry.
The original inhabitants of the lagoon fled from the mainland to avoid the rampaging barbarian hordes descending upon them after the fall of Rome. Torcello was the first major settlement. It’s a quiet island now with a few farms and restaurants, one canal, an archeology museum, 12th century church (Santa Fosca) and the basilica- first built in the 7th century. In the courtyard between the museum and the basilica there are a bunch of random archaeological artifacts including a marble chair supposedly used by Atilla the Hun as his throne- more likely used by a savvy, publicity hungry lagoon dweller as his lawn chair.
Compared to the later churches, the basilica is a simple building, elegantly decorated with Byzantine carvings and mosaics. The most impressive feature is the large Doomsday Mosaic on the back wall. Designed to be seen by parishioners as they exited the building, the Doomsday Mosaic is a graphic portrayal of the Last Judgement- the saved get to go to heaven and hang out with saints and biblical heroes. The damned go to to hell to be tormented in very specific ways laden with dramatic irony. I always get a little excited when I see Old-Testament characters in these contexts- like spotting a comic I used to work with on an orange juice commercial or a VH1 clip show. Anyhow, the vision of hell was particularly intriguing to me- especially the blue, bearded, eastern-looking Satan sitting with the Antichrist baby in his lap making a mockery of the Madonna and Child featured above the altar. Just like art and entertainment today, wickedness is a lot more fun to portray than virtue. After all- no one remembers the names of the dalmatians but everyone knows Cruella deVille.
The best way to view the pictures (in my opinion) is to click on the first one which opens a larger view, then click Next in that new window. This way you can also read the captions.
