Hearts in Venice (Churches in Venice)

Hearts in Venice

Since there’s not a church in Venice dedicated to San Valentino, I'm going with a “heart” theme instead.

BSMheartinfloor

This heart is on the floor of Basilica di San Marco and marks the place where the heart of Doge Francesco Erizzo is buried. His body is in the church of San Martino but his heart is here, as he requested in his will. There’s no name, just the little doge hat on top. He was doge from 1631-1646, a traumatic time in Venetian history that included 16 months of plague that killed 46,000 people, reducing the population by a third. Not many doges are buried in San Marco so I guess he must have been much loved to have his wish honored.

I read about this heart in a book, but it was many visits to San Marco before I finally stumbled across it and for some reason, it really moved me when I saw it for the first time, maybe because that church has my heart too. Anyway, if you want to see it, it’s in the high altar area to the left of the saint’s crypt.

feliceheartinfloor Another heart, this one on the floor of the church of San Felice. I assume someone’s heart is buried here too but I don’t know who.

I took about 100 photos of shrines on my trip but it wasn’t until I came home that I noticed the white heart-shaped balloon next to this shrine!

shrinewithheartballoon

emptyshrine I found two empty and abandoned shrines, and this is one of them. This shrine happens to be on the calle where my favorite apartment is and if I could have reached it, I would have found a Madonna postcard somewhere and put her inside. It’s empty, but notice the heart graffiti underneath.