Churches in Venice

So as I said, I walked and walked and walked and took lots of photos along the way. Taking pictures of Venice is challenging; she’s just too photogenic and it’s easy to get carried away. But I did have my primary focus (churches and campanili) along with my other obsessions: cats, street shrines and tabernacles, holiday decorations, Byzantine details, fossils and floors, Madonnas, mosaics, angels, and funky monsters.

Occasionally my interests converged and it was very cool.

I found this tabernacle shrine to the Madonna inside a sotoportego in Dorsoduro. It’s a nice one and I snapped a few photos. But then I walked closer to look inside and what I saw startled me, then made me laugh.

This is one of the largest and most elaborate shrines I found. It’s in Castello, not far from the church of Sant’ Isepo (San Guiseppe di Castello, dedicated to St. Joseph).

I can’t find any information about its history besides a brief mention in DK’s Eyewitness Venice Top Ten guidebook which says that it’s a memorial shrine dating back to the 1600’s.

Someone certainly is taking very good care of it. Fresh paint, lots of fresh flowers, amazingly clean lace curtains and altar cloths. I wonder who takes care of shrines like this – ladies from the local church, ladies in the neighborhood, anyone who feels inspired?

Another nice detail is the old framed photo hanging on the door that shows women from the past sitting in front of that very shrine sewing or making lace perhaps.

I’ll get back to churches one of these days, in case you’re wondering if I'm going to change the name of this blog to “Street Shrines in Venice.” (smile)

I first visited this shrine during my 2006 trip after seeing it mentioned in Michela Scibilia’s restaurant guide (the shrine is right beside Osteria da Dante in Castello, not far from the church of San Lorenzo).

More than a shrine, it’s really like an outdoor chapel - the whole inside of the sotoportego is decorated and there’s a marble altar to the Virgin on each side.

I was very intrigued by it and wanted to know more but couldn’t find information about it anywhere. But then on my 2007 trip, I bought a great new guidebook (Paulo Giordani’s Venice) which has the story, and it’s a good one. It’s another Venetian miracle-working Madonna to add to my ever-growing list.

During the 1630 plague (the same plague that inspired the building of the Santa Maria della Salute church), a woman named Giovanna told her neighbors that their faith in the Madonna would protect them all from the plague. She painted an image of the Madonna with Saints and put it in this sotoportego, and it worked! The residents of this part of Castello remained healthy, and the locals believed that the miraculous power of the Madonna kept the plague from passing through the shrine into their neighborhood.

Locals also believe that the shrine kept their neighborhood safe from WWI bombs and every year on Nov. 21 when the city as a whole honors Santa Maria della Salute at the church, this neighborhood also honors her at this shrine. This is all recorded on this plaque above one of the entrances.

This lovely green free-standing shrine is dedicated to San Antonio (St. Anthony), and it’s another very well-cared for shrine with a nice painting inside of the saint holding the Christ child. It’s in Cannaregio on the way to Madonna dell’ Orto and has a sign saying it was built in 1668. The vast majority of the shrines in Venice are dedicated to Mary, with St. Anthony a distant second. It makes sense that he’s the next most popular image since he’s a local saint who’s buried in his own church over in Padua.

Thanks so much to Leslie for telling me about this book – Shrines: Images of Italian Worship by Frances Mayes and Steven Rothfeld. It’s a beautiful little coffee table book with photos of shrines from all over Italy. It arrived in the mail yesterday and I immediately retired to the couch with it (is there anything better than getting a new book?!). I recognized most all of the Venetian shrines pictured in the book except for another large San Antonio shrine that I’d love to find.

There’s another very cool green shrine in Venice that I haven’t seen except in photos – this one that’s out in the lagoon somewhere. Here’s another great photo of it. Just amazing.

And I also want to see this incredible Madonna and Child that Kathy (trek capri) found. Her photos of Burano are beautiful.

In honor of Day One of the Great SlowTravel Blogging Challenge and today's theme (red), I'm posting this photo of a shrine. I have no idea where this one is in Venice - this photo somehow got separated from the ones around it that would give me a clue about where I was that day.

Most Venetian red has some orange in it, closer to terracotta. I think of the bricks and the tile roofs and the many, many churches with red and white marble floors. There are the rich rusty reds of Carpaccio, but also the jeweltone burgundies of Bellini. And of course, there's this dress, maybe the most beautiful red of all.

This shrine is in Cannaregio, close to the church of Volto Santo and former convent of Santa Maria dei Servi. The church was closed but I was happy to find this beautiful shrine. It’s unusual to find a shrine on the verge of being engulfed by Mother Nature. I like the ivy’s autumn colors and how they match the bricks. And I love the weather-beaten image of the Madonna inside.

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

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.

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.

This Cannaregio shrine is close to Tintoretto’s house and Campo dei Mori, the campo with the four turbaned statues embedded in the walls.

As you can see, the shrine has a very reflective glass. I took about seven photos before I finally got the image of the Pieta relief inside – it looks kinda spooky and cool.

True confession time here….I’m a bit addicted to Google. I think of something I want to know and start looking and next thing I know, hours of my life have passed by and I’ve got all kinds of new and interesting trivia in my head. I haven’t decided if I should be worried about this or not.

Here’s an example. I was looking through my shrine photos and noticed how many of the Madonna shrines are light blue/sky blue/baby blue (we call it Carolina blue here in NC but that’s another story). Either her clothes are that shade of blue or the shrine itself or both. So I went to Google to try to find out why, and here are a few interesting things I found along the way.

Bathtub Madonna shrines

Who knew? Evidently these are very popular in the Midwest. Paint the inside of an old bathtub sky blue, bury it halfway, put a Madonna inside, and voila, a shrine for your yard.

Pink and Blue

This NY Times article about the Princess Craze says that in the early 20th century, pink was considered to be a masculine color (because it was close to red) and baby blue was a feminine color (because of its association with the Virgin). But by the 1930’s, the gender associations had switched, and pink became feminine and blue masculine. How weird is that? How and why does a change like that happen?

Why does Mary always wear light blue?

This article says that she doesn’t.

I finally found an explanation that makes sense – centuries ago, blue pigment (made from lapis lazuli) was the most precious and costly pigment in painting, and using that color was a way to honor and show devotion to her. That gave me the "a-ha" moment I was looking for so I could stop googling this topic and move into the next one.

Another nice shrine with fresh paint, this one has a history that dates back over 800 years. This San Polo sotoportego is supposedly the place where Pope Alexander III slept when he arrived in Venice in 1177. He came to Venice in disguise, exiled from Rome and on the run from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

The Pope put a special blessing here for anyone who comes inside and prays before the shrine, according to the wooden plaque above the entrance.

There are several other legends about this pope-on-the-run. One is that he worked as a janitor for six months at the convent of La Carita before someone recognized him and helped restore him to power. He also spent the night on the portico of the church of San Salvador. Eventually, the Venetian Republic (a neutral party in the dispute) intervened and negotiated reconciliation between the two enemies, and the spot where they kissed and made up is marked with a stone on the floor of Basilica di San Marco (another floor detail to track down).

There's a little statue of the sleeping Pope inside the shrine at the bottom.

2012 Update: Check out Yvonne's recent visit to this shrine. So many mysteries!

I love the funky frame on this shrine in Castello.

I wonder if someone had decorations left over from a wedding or baby shower and decided to honor the saint with them?

Nice image of the saint inside the shrine too.

Something about this shrine makes me think about being underwater - I guess it's that shiny blue material lining the back of the shrine. Love the wall, love the yellow flowers!

A sweet little shrine in Dorsoduro. This one is in campo San Basegio, not far from the Zattere. I love the purple stone framing this shrine.

There used to be a church in this campo - San Basilio, a 9th century church dedicated to St. Basil. It's gone (demolished in 1824) but the shrine remains.

Some of these shrines have an electric light inside which gives them a cool glow from a distance but you have to get very close in order to see who is inside. I love the brick wall with peeling stucco behind this shrine and the Byzantine Madonna inside.

Interesting neighbors! You can find this shrine in Corte Nova in Castello, not far from Via Garibaldi.

This beautiful marble tabernacle, showing the Madonna with Child Giving the Keys to St. Peter, is in eastern Castello on Fondamenta Quintavalle, on the way to the church of San Pietro di Castello. It’s an early 15th century work that was recently restored by the California chapter of Save Venice.

It's so wonderful seeing art outdoors as you roam around Venice, and there's actually quite a lot of it all over the city. You could make a case for moving works like this into a museum for protection, but instead, the restoration included adding lead to the roof to protect it from rain. I'm a bit sad that they finally had to move the four horses of San Marco inside, but those things are 2000 years old – it was time for them to get out of the weather, I think.

This beautiful shrine commemorates a demolished church that used to be in this Castello campo. Founded in 1130, the church was originally dedicated to Saints Liberal and Alexis but was rededicated to Santa Marina when her body was placed on the high altar of the church in 1231 after the Venetians stole her from Constantinople. These "pious thefts" are strange and recurring events in Venice's history; for whatever reason, stealing the body of San Marco in 828 started a trend that continued for centuries.

Santa Marina (aka Marina the Monk) is a very interesting 5th century saint from Lebanon who entered a monastery when she was very young, disguised as a boy, and no one knew she was a woman until decades later when she died and the monks were preparing her body for burial. Legend has that it was quite a shock when they discovered the truth!

During her life, she was falsely accused of fathering a child and accepted her punishment without protest and ended up raising the child who grew up to be a monk too. Marina was buried in a grotto at the monastery in Lebanon where she is still honored today, but at some point her body was stolen and taken to Constantinople, where it was later stolen again by the Venetians. She is usually depicted in art with the child who she did not father, as she is inside this shrine.

Several doges were buried in this church which had a great collection of art and was the parish church of the master Giovanni Bellini.

The church was suppressed in 1818 and for a brief time, it was a wine shop and tavern. There are funny stories about waiters and customers shouting, “a jug in the chapel of the Holy Sacrament” and such. And then the church was demolished in 1820 and private houses built on the site; the doges were moved to San Zanipolo and the relics of Santa Marina were moved to Santa Maria Formosa.

More beautiful Venetian bricks and a sweet little shrine with a salmon-colored Madonna inside...

It's pretty tough to pick a favorite Madonna in a city like Venice that is home to tens of thousands of wonderful images of her, but I definitely put this one in my Top 20. She looks vaguely Byzantine and iconic, and I love the design and colors. Looks like this one is ceramic tile, perhaps.

One thing I learned during my December trip is that you can almost always find a shrine inside a sotoportego (the covered passageways that are all over Venice) or on a street named for the Madonna (and there are many of those!).

This is one in Castello in a sotoportego off Via Garibaldi, not far from the church of San Francesco di Paola. This one's very elegant with all that gold.

Thanks so much to Maria I who told me who this is in the shrine (Mary, Queen of Peace) and translated the line under "Ave Maria":

"Regina Pacis Ora Pro Nobis" (Queen of Peace, Pray for Us)

I love our blogging community. Thanks Maria I!

Some mosaic images inside Venetian street shrines. The second one is the French saint, Therese de Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower.

This one is out on the island of Murano (an old photo that I scanned in with my new scanner). I want to get a better photo of this one next trip.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "support." In this case, I'm not talking about the shrine (though that could work too) but rather that big staple-shaped metal thing above it. You see these all over the buildings of Venice - I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I think it's some kind of support to help hold those old buildings up. I imagine someone with a very large stapler walking around Venice!

Happy weekend!

This lovely 17th century Annunciation relief is over a door on a house next to Ponte Cavallo, the bridge in front of the church of San Zanipolo. It'd be nice to see this every time you came home.

A sweet little San Antonio shrine in a corte in Cannaregio. Love those mops to the side. This one has so many flowers!

This shrine to the Madonna is at the base of the Rialto Bridge, on the San Polo side. She's a bit worse for wear but there are always lots of flowers in front of her.

Venice Explorer has photos of this Madonna (scroll down to bottom right corner) as part of the evidence for their campaign to save Venice from the effects of sulphur created by gas-powered boats. It's pretty incredible to see how much this Madonna has deteriorated since 1976.

Thanks to SandraC for the idea for this post! I rented the film "Agata e la Tempesta" after reading Sandra's review of it. Wonderful movie! I really loved it and seeing it inspired me to rent "Pane e Tulipani" (Bread and Tulips) again since it had been several years since I'd watched that one. Both films are by director Silvio Soldini, and both star the beautiful Italian actress Licia Maglietta.

Well, I know Venice better than I did the first time I saw "Bread and Tulips," and I saw two shrines in the movie that I'd taken photos of when I was in Venice last year. When I mentioned this to Sandra, she suggested that I post the photos on my blog, so here they are!

This first shrine is in the scene where Rosalba meets the plumber/detective who her husband had hired to track her down in Venice. They agreed to meet in Campo do Pozzi (campo with two wells) which is a real campo in Castello where this shrine is. It's hard to tell in my photo but the Madonna inside this shrine is the one from Titian's painting of the Assunta.

And then when Rosalba runs away and the bumbling "detective" tries to follow her, they go by this shrine, also in Castello.

Thanks to Sandra for recommending "Agata." Both of these movies are a perfect way for Italy lovers to get a fix in between trips. Sandra is currently blogging about her recent trip to Umbria and Tuscany; she has some wonderful photos and stories about many off-the-beaten-path towns and churches that she visited, so check her blog out too if you need an Italy fix!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "blue."

Raindrops/roses, whiskers/kittens...blue satin sashes, etc.
Here are a couple of my favorite BLUE things in Venice.

Nov. 4, 2008: Make History

Happy Halloween, Happy Weekend, and Happy Hunting!
Find more photo hunters here.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "ruin(ed)."

I've got a couple this week, a shrine in Venice and a shed in North Carolina.

This little wayside shrine in Venice looks like it's melting into the wall. It's not completely ruined but it's on its way.

But even so, it's still serving its purpose as a devotional altar, as you can tell by the little San Antonio candle someone put in it.

A fairy tale corner of Venice, this little courtyard has a charming blue shrine with flowers and lace and a colorful Madonna inside, a nice vera da pozzo with plants on top, and fluttering laundry. Pretty perfect!

Another sweet little corte with a shrine in Venice. The sign on the door next to the shrine says "La Bottega di Pinocchio"...Pinocchio's Workshop? I see the long-nosed wooden guy hanging there, under the bell.

I'd love to know the story of this place; it was like walking into a children's book. Found this in Castello on the way to the church of San Pietro di Castello

I ended up spending so much time on the island of Torcello that by the time I got to Burano, there was only about an hour of daylight left. So I skipped all the shops and went on a speed walk looking for shrines to photograph before it got dark.

I recognized this one because I'd seen a photo of it in Trekcapri's Venice Rediscovered , a wonderful report from her 2007 trip to Venice. I was happy to find it because it's such an unique and photogenic shrine!

This one is tucked inside a little sotoportego. While I love shrines with these little "eternal flame" lights, they aren't easy to photograph especially when they are in a dark place. Sometimes I wish I had one of those "click on, click off" light thingys like Dumbledore had.

This one is on the side of Burano's one church, San Martino. This church has one of the many leaning towers in Venice although it looked like it had been straightened a bit since the last time I went to Burano. It's still tilting but not quite as much.

And this one is on the side of a restaurant, close to the main drag with all the shops.

While looking for shrines, I also found a large colony of cats! I'll post photos of them later.

A cool little shrine/chapel/oratory in a corte in San Marco. Built in 1815 and dedicated to Beata Vergina Assunta, it even has a bell on top.

I only learned about Orbs recently, maybe because I just got my first digital camera last year. A quick google search showed lots of Orb discussion and photos out there on the web, with people divided into two camps: those with the rational “reflection off a dust particle” explanation, and then the mystical camp (people who believe that an orb is an angel or other being from the spirit world).

Now, I don’t know what they are but it’s surely more romantic and exciting to think that they are angels. I do believe that there are unseen benevolent beings around us, and I like the idea that they might pop up in our photos from time to time. And they show up so rarely in my photos that I pay attention when they do.

So anyway, I came home from Venice last winter with two orb sightings in my photos, both of them shrines.

There are shrines all over Venice but the sestiere with the most is definitely Castello which also has a number of very large shrines, almost chapels. This one is so obviously loved and taken care of so well. It's unique too because of what's inside.

Another large and well-loved shrine in Castello, this one has three statues inside - Mary, Christ, and a nun-saint who is probably Santa Rita. This one has double doors - the wooden ones which were open and then the glass-fronted doors which were closed and locked. Love the white roses and lace curtains.

There's an old vintage black-and-white photo of this shrine inside the shrine, with the caption "Tanto Tempo Fa" ....."So Long Ago."

Next in my series of big shrines in Castello, this one has a chalet feel to it with its shingled roof and wooden doors. As I was peering inside the window of this shrine, a local resident strolled over to check me out. He/she posed for a photo and then ran over to a nearby house, jumped in the window, and went inside.

Back to big shrines...I wrote about this one last year, and I revisited it this past December and took more photos. It's one of my very favorites.

To visit the shrine, you walk through the very charming Campiello de Ca' Sarasina. Love those flower pots on the building. You can see the open green door of the shrine on the right.

A shrine and some laundry. Doesn't get much better than this. :)

There's lots of stuff inside this shrine but the central image is a framed Byzantine-looking Black Madonna adorned with votive jewelry. She does NOT want to be photographed (I've tried twice and failed!).

Some of the shrines in Venice are very elegant while others are more homespun. This Castello shrine is kind of a mix - there's an intriquing old relief of the Mother and Child inside but the tabernacle and its dusty silk flowers are more charming and folksy than elegant.

This one, filled with geraniums surrounding Michelangelo's Pieta, is in Cannaregio.

This is a strange one. The reliefs on the tabernacle seem to have some age on them, and that face on the wall above looks exactly like the gatekeeper in The Wizard of Oz. :)

It's very rare to see a shrine that's been vandalized but this one has a busted window. Perhaps the vandal is responsible for the lurid orange color of Baby Jesus' face? It's a bizarre image inside!

This oratorio is listed on the Patriarch of Venice website which says that it has two small rooms inside. Built in 1829 by workers from the Arsenal and dedicated to Beata Vergine Addolorato (Our Lady of Sorrows). Restored in 1995. I've never found it open. It hardly looks big enough to have two rooms.

And this one is in Castello, in Campiello del Figareto, and it isn't on the oratory list so I guess it's a shrine and/or private chapel. There's a Madonna and Child inside that you can barely see and I couldn't photograph because it's so dark in there. The inscription says that it was built in 1842, restored in 1979. In the second photo, you can see where someone has stuck a single long-stemmed rose in the grate of the door.

A wall in Castello with bright blue paint and a San Antonio of Padua shrine with three silver stars painted above the shrine. One thing I've noticed about San Antonio shrines is that the saint is almost always holding Baby Jesus and sometimes, the baby is reaching up to touch his face. I don't know why but it's sweet.

Blog friend and fellow Venice lover Maria I of My Place in the Sun recently posted a few more San Antonio shrines that she found in Venice last fall. She noticed that he often has lilies around him too.

Just a note: I've been having some comment weirdness the past couple of days. If you get a message saying that your comment is undeliverable and you need to resend it, ignore it. The comments are coming through okay!

This is Rio della Verona, the canal that runs behind the opera house La Fenice.

This large shrine is in sotoportego San Cristoforo, next to the rio. It looks so clean and new, I wonder if it was also reconstructed after the fire.

The image inside the shrine is a copy of Titian's fresco of St. Christopher that's in the Palazzo Ducale.

Sometimes the wall behind the shrine is just as interesting as the shrine itself. This wall is ravaged but beautiful.

Here's another example ~

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Creamy."

A couple of photos I took in Venice last year. First up is a booth at the Christmas market in campo Santo Stefano. I took this photo because of the marzipan fruit but there are some cream horns behind them.

A cream-colored statue of the Madonna inside a little street shrine.

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Thanks for visiting and Happy Summer Solstice!

Here's a case where a bridge was named for a street shrine. The bridge, called Ponte dei Carmini, was built in 1791 and named for the adjacent shrine with an image of the Madonna del Carmine inside. The shrine is lovely but needs some attention; one side is propped up with what looks like a bed slat. This is in Castello, close to the church of San Zaccaria.

A lovely shrine to the Madonna in a charming corte close to the church of Santa Maria Formosa. When I look at these photos, I remember how excited I was when I found this one. It's a beauty. There's a little electric light at the Madonna's feet that gives her a cool-looking glow.

A shrine and some laundry, doesn't get much better than this. And a tree!

This first one really made me smile. I call it the minimalist shrine. No flowers or decorations, just a stone cross with a money box on top. Many of the shrines of Venice have donation boxes with locks, and I've often wondered who goes around collecting money from them or even has a key that works (some of the locks look quite antique).

This particular box had a coin stuck in the slot. I tried to push it in but it was stuck tight. Perhaps the box was made for lira (or ducats!) and someone tried to put a Euro in?

This one is on the island of Murano so it's fitting that there's a glass vase on the table next to the Madonna and child.

A very ornate shrine inside sotoportego Corte Zorzi in Castello, with gold reliefs of grapes and ears of corn on the sides and an image of San Antonio inside. This tabernacle was made using materials recovered from restoration work on the pulpit of the nearby church of San Martino.

I only found a few shrines there but wow, this first one might be my all-time fave. I'd like to copy this one for my own garden. It doesn't look like it would be too hard to build.

What a great use for a tree stump.

I also like this empty niche on the side of the cathedral.

Back to Venice itself now, but with a Torcello connection. This incredibly beautiful and ornate shrine is in Camp San Giacomo dall' Orio, next to one of the bridges that exits the campo.

There's a small plaque next to the shrine that says that the icon inside is a copy of a statue of the Madonna con Bambino found in the church of Santa Fosca on Torcello. It's unusual for a shrine to have a sign like this. I love the blue/green marble on the sides of this tabernacle.

There are countless images of the Madonna all over Venice, both inside churches and museums and also out on the streets, inside shrines, and on buildings. So many beautiful ones but this rustic relief of the Madonna dell’Umilta is one of my favorites. She’s tucked away on a quiet residential street in Castello, set into the wall above a door (I didn’t stumble across this one by accident; I knew to go looking for her).

This 15th century relief is unique because it’s carved from wood rather than stone. According to Alberto Rizzi (Scultura Esterna a Venezia), this Madonna was most likely inside a shrine, but today the tabernacle is gone and only the icon remains.

She’s showing signs of age (at one time, the wood was painted but you can barely see the traces) but still, her smile is peaceful and there’s an air of serenity and joy around her. And what a fat and happy baby! He looks more like Buddha than Christ to me.

Thanks to A Lover of Venice for sharing the Rizzi info with me. And if you haven’t checked out ALoV’s website lately, please do. There are a number of new pages including the best collection of Venice links on the web, and also a “Photo of the Week” page. Walks though Santa Croce and San Polo have been added and also some amazing photos taken from a ship leaving Venice for Istanbul.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Foreign."

Some themes are tough because you've just got too many photos that would work!

No surprise that I'm going to my favorite foreign (overseas) city for this one....a street shrine in Venice. Shrines were foreign to me growing up; I'd never seen one until I went to Europe. Now they are one of my favorite things to find and photograph.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

Shrine in Corte Lucatello, close to the church of San Zulian. I love the red flowers.

There's an inscription on the alms box ~ CHI DONA AI POVERI DONA A DIO (Who gives to the poor, gives to God).

One of many San Antonio (Sant'Antonio da Padova) shrines in Venice, this one guards a bridge in Cannaregio, the Ponte dei Ormesini. I love the little tablecloth the icon is standing on.

Last year, I wrote about a Cannaregio shrine that's on the verge of being covered over by hanging ivy. Then in a little corte close to the Arsenale, I found this one that's completely overgrown with some kind of vine. I wish I'd had some gardening shears! I couldn't see inside the shrine, so I stuck my camera through the overgrowth and snapped and was surprised by what I saw when I looked at the camera screen.

Of course, there's a Madonna inside but this is another one of those family or neighborhood memorial shrines like the big blue one in Castello. Makes me sad that it's overgrown; I guess the people who took care of this one have died or moved away.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Fresh."

A couple of photos from Venice. First up, the market close to the church of San Leonardo~

Fresh flowers on a street shrine~

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Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

A gorgeous shrine with an interesting connection to the history of the shrines of Venice.

This corte in Castello was the birthplace of Doge Domenico Michiel, who ruled Venice from 1118-1130. He was a medieval hero who led the Venetian fleet to victory in a number of decisive Mediterranean battles, defeating the Egyptians, taking control of Tyre, and greatly expanding Venice’s territory and trade routes.

In 1128, Doge Michiel decreed that lamps should be lit each evening in all the city’s shrines, a public works project of sorts that made Venice the first city in the world to have street lights. The decree specified that parish priests were responsible for lighting the lamps each night and that the government would pay for the oil and the lamps. How cool to think about wandering around Venice after dark with the only lights being those in the shrines.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Mother."

A few images of the Holy Mother taken in Venice, Italy.

A mosaic on the facade of Basilica di San Marco~

Street shrine on a pink building~

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day weekend to all.

I bet this one is sweet at night when that tiny light is on.

Beautiful marble shrine

So many pink roses on this one. And it's high enough up on the building that someone had to use a ladder to put those roses there. Love the little tablecloth too.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Hanging."

We've done this theme before and it was a great fun to see what everyone came up with. Here's mine:

A street shrine hanging on a wall in Venice~

And here in North Carolina, a bird house hanging in a tree~

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. Keep cool if you're in the midst of this heat wave.

Seems like there's been a rash of vandalism in Venice this year – Senor Rioba’s head, a fire that might have been arson at the church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti (Ospedaletto), and even a couple of shrines (but with happy endings though).

One of the many Venice blogs that I enjoy reading, the Alloggi Barbaria blog is unique because the author actually lives in Venice and keeps all of us far-flung Venice lovers posted about news from the city. After I read about these vandalized shrines, I checked my photos and I had visited both of them.

This Castello shrine guards the bridge, Ponte Tetta. It’s a beautiful shrine but was very weather beaten when I saw it. The vandalism led to a complete restoration and now it looks fantastic. I can’t wait to see it in person.

The image inside this shrine is rather unusual; it’s a terracotta relief showing The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The relief was carved by Capuchin father Massimiliano Vaiente in1980.

This sweet little shrine is inside Sotoportego Del Fontego, close to campo Santa Margherita. The icon inside this one is a statue of Our Lady wearing a crown. The first post I read showed the empty shrine with crime scene tape on it, a horrible sight! Then later came the good news that the icon was found and is now safe in the sacristy of the nearby church of the Carmini. I hope that this shrine will be restored too.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Framed."

There are hundreds of street shrines in Venice....here are just a few, framed with stone.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Anniversary."

This Venetian shrine commemorates some kind of anniversary but I have no idea what these dates mean.

Also, this month is my blog's third anniversary (or blogiversary, a funny word that actually made it into the dictionary, according to Google). To celebrate, I'm re-posting the first photo from my first post.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

A weather-beaten but beautiful shrine in Castello, close to the Arsenale. It's hard to see but the stone relief inside shows San Antonio with the baby Jesus.

Love the colors of the wall surrounding this shrine.

There are images of San Giorgio and the dragon all over Venice; here are a couple you can find outdoors on the streets. As far as I know, this is the only shrine honoring this hero saint.

One of the many things I like about St. George is the fact that he not only has a couple of Catholic churches in Venice dedicated to him but also an Anglican church and a Greek Orthodox cathedral.

The dragon in the relief below has a double spiral tail like this other one here.

A fascinating shrine in Dorsoduro, close to the church of Angelo Raffaele. The large and ornate tabernacle houses a 15th century painted wooden crucifix which had been hanging on this wall unprotected for centuries (the tabernacle was added in the mid 19th century). The shrine was restored by the Knights of San Marco in 1983 and then again more recently by Venice in Peril. I'd love to know the story of the crucifix and why it was outside and not inside the church.

Another shrine close to the church of Angelo Raffaele in Dorsoduro. I love the contrast of the deep blue with that brick wall.

I could have used this shrine for last week's "Letters" PhotoHunt but I didn't think about it until after I saw TrekCapri's cool photo from the Poste Vaticane.

It's a lovely shrine in Corte dei Preti, not far from the church of San Pietro di Castello. I love the tree!

Thanks so much to my blog friend and fellow lover of Venice for sending this beautiful photo and allowing me to post it on the blog. I love seeing photos of shrines I haven't found yet, and this is a nice one with a particularly exuberant baby Jesus.

Bert noted the inscription on the bottom of the icon - "Lady Layard fece regalo" or Gift of Lady Layard, a British noblewoman who lived in Venice from 1883 until her death in 1912. She was married to Sir Henry Layard, an archeologist and later a diplomat. The NY Times article about her death focuses on the huge collection of Italian paintings the Layards bequeathed to the National Gallery in London; another vintage article talks about how the Italians tried to prevent this "magnificent collection" from leaving Italy. Seems that the Italians lost that fight as about 80 paintings from the Layard Bequest are in London now.

The shrine is in Calle del Magazen o del Bastion, San Polo 2029. I’m looking forward to seeing it in person the next time I’m in Venice. Thanks Bert!

I really like those flying flower pots on either side of this shrine. This one is up high so it's hard to get a good look or photo of the image inside the shrine. I love the colors.

I'm home from a week in Venice...in a bit of a jet-lagged haze but very happy. That place continues to amaze me; even in parts of the city where I've spent lots of time, I'd see things I'd never noticed before.

Since it was a short trip, I decided not to blog while I was there. Plus I felt the need to take a technology break. No TV, no Internet, no cell phone, even no newspapers...it was very therapeutic and fun. I did pop in an Internet cafe once a day to email my mom and read the reports from the pet sitter (my kitties did fine but they are glad I'm back home).

One of the reasons I went at this particular time was to be there on November 21 for the Festa della Madonna della Salute, a truly wonderful experience. The festa actually goes on for almost a week and they build a temporary votive bridge across the Grand Canal; I loved walking across that bridge. The Sunday of the Festa was the only day of bad weather while I was there....torrential rain and turn-the-umbrella-inside-out wind. But it didn't stop the Venetians from coming to pay homage to the Madonna as they've been doing for centuries. It's a beautiful celebration.

The acqua alta sirens sounded a few times but it wasn't as bad as it was when I was there in December 2008 or May 2004. I did have to take a few detours to avoid a flooded calle, but I didn't have to wear the dreaded plastic boots this time. And there were several incredible warm and blue-sky days...I was very lucky!

So as soon as I recover (and finish labeling my photos before I forget where I was when I took them), I'll be blogging about my trip. Some great church visits (went inside five new ones to add to my life list) plus lots of shrines, cats, radicchio, Torcello, pizza, and all the other things I love about Venezia.

Of course, I loved the fact that there were shrines on both entrances to the votive bridge, one on each side of the Grand Canal. On the San Marco side was this green and white tabernacle flanked by stone lion heads.

And on the Dorsoduro side of the bridge, there was this large shrine-within-a-shrine.

Daniel asked how long it took to take the bridge down. Not very long, I don't think. It closed Monday night at 11 pm and they took it down in the middle of the night. Early Tuesday morning I walked down there and it was gone until next year.

A few shrines that contain an image of the icon from the high altar of the church of Santa Maria della Salute~

Here's one with some helpful graffiti, in English no less: "Don't Worry!" ~

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Free Week."

A theme-free week so I'm free to post a few more photos from my November trip to Venice. When I saw this theme, the Joni Mitchell song, "Free Man in Paris," popped into my head...a great song about the joys of travel, so it fits.

I was lucky to have a bunch of sunny, blue sky days while I was there. I took this one from the vaporetto (water bus). Feel free to click to enlarge so you can see the colors of that building.

One of my favorite things to look for and photograph in Venice are the street shrines.

You never know what you will see in those canals....

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

I was SO excited when I stumbled across this shrine. I’d seen a photo of it in “I Capitelli di Venezia” and knew it was somewhere in the hospital complex but had no idea where. What a great shrine. It’s modern, of course, dated 1983, and is an image of the Madonna Barcarola who protects boatmen and sailors under her mantle, according to the Capitelli book, which makes her a relative of the Madonna della Misericordia, I guess?

The book doesn’t identify the artist but does say that it’s a fresco. It almost looks like it was done with colored chalk by a precocious child. It's just so funky - I love it!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Hands."

A few carved-in-stone hands seen on the streets of Venice. I was surprised how many of these I had.

We did this theme a couple of years ago; my first take on this theme was more colorful and less stony than this one. :)

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

A large neighborhood shrine I found when I spent the day on Giudecca. I like the letter "M" in the metalwork.The holy image inside this one is a colorful Pieta tableau. The pink umbrella is a nice touch too.

One of my very favorite shrines was this little stone niche honoring San Antonio. Even though it was badly degraded and looked like it’s melting into the wall, there’s something so poignantly beautiful about those old stones and that little purple candle.

So I had a bit of a pang when I saw that it’s gone and has been replaced by a modern shrine. I guess it was beyond repair and perhaps the people who live in this building or neighborhood wanted a new one. It’s still dedicated to San Antonio and still has a candle. You can find this one in Dorsoduro in Campo Angelo Raffaele

Shrines like this one just make me smile. It's got a funky art deco feel to it, and I love all the colors inside.

I'm still going through my photos from my November trip, sorting and putting tags on them. I was on the verge of having a big unwieldy mess, so in addition to sorting my most recent ones, I'm going back into the archives to tag ones from previous trips too. I'm also going back to old blog posts and replacing photos if I found I had a better one. Pre-spring cleaning!

Anyway, I'm starting to notice small or large changes in various things that I photographed more than once but in different years. It's especially interesting when I see changes in shrines that I might not have noticed right off the bat like I did with the poor little melting San Antonio shrine.

These top two photos were taken in November 2010 and the two down below were taken on my previous trip. This shrine was nice before but is even better now.

Another sweet shrine. This one's in Dorsoduro, not far from the church of San Nicolo dei Mendicoli, still one of my very favorite churches in Venice. The relief is degraded but you can see that Mary wears a crown and is holding a squirmy Baby Jesus, and both of them are holding rosaries.

I have a rosary with reddish-pink rosewood beads that I bought in Vatican City. It's beautiful and smells just like roses...I got it out recently to see if the scent had faded and it hasn't. I also have a string of Hindu prayer beads that were a gift from a friend who got them in India. Always interesting when traditions like prayer beads cross faiths. I think they are used in Buddhism and Islam too.

I like how this shrine has two vases for flowers - they look much more modern than the shrine itself, but whoever added them put them to the side so the flowers wouldn't block the view of the sacred image.

Oops! Sorry guys, I was wrong. There's not another Annunciation but there is an Assunta! I messed up when translating one of my books but found another (in English) that identified this relief as an Assumption scene.

There are two shrines on the Rialto bridge - one on the San Polo side and this one on the San Marco side. Mary is being lifted up to Heaven by the crowd of cherubs below.

The wine bar next to this shrine is a fun place to sit and watch all the traffic on the Grand Canal. A photo of this bar was posted all over the Internet after the especially high acqua alta of December 2008. My photo shows it dry; click through for the wet view.

"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear..."

I love a good mystery and of course, Venice is full of them. Bert of VDP and I have been emailing about this shrine and as Bert noted, we have more questions than answers. Maybe someone else can shed some light into the intriguing scene on the relief inside this shrine.

There are three characters (from left to right)....a naked man sitting down, a naked woman standing up facing him, and a clothed bearded gentleman with his hand on the woman's head.

Both my Capitelli book and Venezia Museo identify it as a "Purgatorio" scene in which St. Peter (?) is trying to get a reluctant woman to leave Purgatory. The book does have a "?" next to St. Peters name and as Bert noticed, the bearded guy doesn't appear to be holding the keys that usually identify St. Peter.

A Lover of Venice captions it as "Carnal Love Behind Bars, Dorsoduro." Perhaps the woman is so carnal that she doesn't want to leave Purgatory?

Then Bert noticed that PreserVenice identifies the scene as the Creation of Eve. But look at Bert's photo below...the naked guy's hand is inside her belly and she looks pregnant. Not part of the Adam and Eve story as far as I know.

Any ideas?!

I wish I knew more about this place especially whether or not it's ever open. This votive chapel is in Cannaregio on Calle del Forno, not far from the church of Santa Sofia. It was built in 1806 to house a miracle-working image of the Madonna and San Rocco that had been in a nearby street shrine. If anyone knows more, please let me know!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Cage(d)."

Birds for sale in a shop window in Venice. Seeing animals in cages makes me sad. These little guys look very crowded in there. I hope they ended up in better living quarters later on.

When looking through the archives trying to find something for this theme, I noticed that some of my Venetian street shrines look like cages. Free the saints!

The statue inside this shrine is Santa Teresa di Lisieux. She's sometimes known as "The Little Flower" or as the "Saint of the Little Ways," and you've probably received an email about her (it's been floating around the web for years).

A couple of other photos of this shrine are here. It has a beautiful purple marble frame around it.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend. Happy Spring!

Be still, my heart! Boy, I love this one.

I wasn't expecting to find another shrine on Torcello since I'd spent a long time looking for them in 2008. But when I walked across the Ponte del Diavolo, I found this Madonna in a niche in the wall. What a beauty.

Thanks to everyone who has commented or contacted me after the tornadoes hit North Carolina this past weekend. I'm fine and so are all of my family and friends. It was such a scary storm - it rattled the windows of my house and the thunder scared the cats, but we came through it okay. My thoughts are with all of those who lost their homes and loved ones.

Now to Burano...

You have to change boats at Burano on the way to Torcello, and so I stopped and spent a couple of hours wandering around there, looking for shrines and cats. I also visited the church of San Martino which was closed the last time I was there.

I found a few shrines on Burano in 2008 and even more this time. Their shrines are particularly charming and very well-kept. It's really such a lovely island; that one main drag is kinda touristy but the surrounding neighborhoods are nice. I really love both of these shrines. More Burano photos coming soon.

Both of these are large, colorful, and dramatic with huge bouquets of flowers and big electric lights. I'd love to see what they look like at night with those lights on.

Because the campo in front was torn up, I wasn't able to get a decent photo of this one. Had to stand right underneath and shoot. This Madonna is holding an exuberant Baby Jesus throwing his arms out with joy. Great flowers too!

Each of these was tucked away inside a sotoportego, above the exit. They're all small and rather homespun, not elegant but very charming.

This one's unusual...a paper collage of sacred images with "Salvami Regina" at the center. Save me/us, Queen of Heaven....

And this one has a bottle of holy water very much like the one I got at the Festa della Madonna della Salute.

This large shrine is in Cannaregio alongside the enormous Scuola Nova della Misericordia, near a former abbey and the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria Valverde. It’s really more of a tabernacle than a shrine; it even has a marble prayer step where worshippers can kneel.

I hope to stroll by this one someday and see that they have cleaned the carvings on the base. These reliefs show the Madonna della Misericordia in the center, protecting two worshippers under her cloak, with a Venetian merchant ship on either side of her.

The wrought iron gate protecting this shrine is quite lovely but makes it challenging to photograph the image inside of a rather Byzantine-looking painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Child. This sacred image is relatively new because for centuries, the tabernacle housed a 14th century Gothic statue of the Pieta which was stolen in 1973. Story goes that the thief lost the statue when he fell into a canal while making his escape, but that might just be an urban legend. The book I Capitelli di Venezia has a photo of the lost statue that I scanned in.

Many thanks to Bert! After I posted this, he sent this wonderful photo below of the image inside and notes, "I love the way the Child's right hand has circled His Mother's neck. It's not right anatomically, but it still looks good." I agree!

There are a number of shrines in Venice connected in one way or another to the iconic gondoliers. This one houses a beautiful relief of the Madonna and Child, with God the Father above them raising his hand in blessing, and carvings of two gondolas below.

This shrine can be found on the Ponte della Paglia (the bridge that's always filled with tourists looking at the Bridge of Sighs). The sacred image is known as the Madonna of the Gondoliers (or Our Lady of the Traghetto) not only because of the gondola carvings but also because the shrine is placed so that it's clearly visible to gondolas crossing under the bridge.

It was nice of this gondola with pink roses to float into my photo when I was admiring the shrine. :)

This bridge was built in 1360 and was enlarged in the 19th century. The shrine was added in 1583.

This is a fascinating mystery. Far from San Marco, on a building in a quiet residential section of Giudecca, is this relief which shows an image of the Ponte della Paglia shrine, Madonna of the Gondoliers, along with the prow of a gondola. As far as I know, it's the only case where a Venetian shrine is honored in a reproduction like this.

I wonder if this is or was the home of a devout gondolier. Another theory (thanks Bert!) is that this relief used to be inside a shrine but is now on its own. In "The World of Venice," Jan Morris mentions a votive shrine that was erected on Giudecca by gondoliers to thank Our Lady for not letting the new-fangled vaporetto drive them out of business.

You can find this relief at Dorsoduro/Giudecca 383, Fondamenta de la Palada.

Another shrine on a bridge that seems to be located specifically for gondoliers and boatmen...right at their eye level and just above the water!

The beautiful carving of Mary, Queen of Heaven, is dated 1615. The bridge is Ponte Cavallo (horse), named in honor of the famous equestrian statue in the adjacent campo of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo (aka San Zanipolo). There might be gondolas carved at the bottom of this shrine too but it's kind of hard to tell. I think I see them though in the third photo down.

I love the stars above her shoulder. Many shrines have flowers, but this one has a live volunteer weed growing out of the stones! A remarkably green and healthy looking plant too. It's great to see plants growing in improbable places like this...makes me believe that nature will prevail no matter what.

Hope everyone who celebrates Independence Day had a nice long holiday weekend!

Continuing with my series of shrines with connections to gondoliers and boatmen, this one isn't actually on a bridge but is adjacent to one, Ponte del Fontego, which enters into Campo Santa Giustina.

There used to be a traghetto landing here, and the shrine was erected in 1621 by the Scuola di Devozione dei Barcaroli (the guild of boatmen). Like several others, this shrine has bas-relief gondolas. This one is unique because it also has a couple of cheerful lions.

Originally this was a Marian shrine with a statue of Immacolata inside. Then for many years in the 20th century, the niche was empty. At some point, a group of locals restored the shrine and added a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then in 2004, a statue of Santa Giustina was placed inside in honor of 1700 years since her martyrdom in 304 AD. Santa Giustina is an Italian saint from nearby Padua, and this campo is also home to a deconsecrated church dedicated to her. In the 7th century, this saint appeared to San Magno and told him to build this church in Venice for her.

I haven't been to every traghetto station in Venice, but most of the ones I have visited have a shrine. Some of them have both a Madonna housed in one of those green metal tabernacles on a pole in the canal and a regular shrine on dry-land too. This one is in San Polo, inside a sotoportego not far from the church of San Silvestro.

Another case of good timing....as I was admiring their shrine, three gondoliers came strolling down the way.

A few more photos to wrap up this series of shrines with connections to gondoliers and boats...

This first one is inside the wooden kiosk close to Piazza San Marco where tourists go to book their gondola tour. The image inside is the icon from the high altar of La Salute with a little plastic gondola in front of her and the "ferro" (iron prow) of a gondola to her side.

This one is in Cannaregio at the Santa Sofia traghetto landing.

Also in Cannaregio, this image of the Madonna is modern and funky! This one is at a squero (boatyard). Love the gold anchor!

This one at the Sam Samuele traghetto landing contains one of the strangest sacred images of all. It's a painting of "Our Lady of the Gondoliers," and in the background is the iconic view of San Giorgio Maggiore and the row of parked gondole near San Marco.

In the foreground is a Mother and Child. The child is holding a doll that looks very much like Pinocchio (it's hard to see in the photo but he has a long nose). I don't remember Pinocchio being in the Bible. :)

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Wooden."

Venice is mainly a city of stone, marble and brick and such. But there are a few wooden things around town.

Many of the windows have wooden shutters, often green. I like the contrast between the peeling paint on the wood, and the peeling stucco letting the bricks peek through.

"Botti" are wooden barrels, and there are three of them painted on the sign for this restaurant. The sign itself is made of the top of a wooden barrel.

And here's one of the wooden barrels outside the entrance to one of my favorite places to eat. The wooden basket sitting on top of the barrel holds a big glass keg for wine.

Many of the street shrines are made of stone, but there are a few wooden ones like this nice carved one~

Thanks for visiting and have a happy weekend. You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

It had never crossed my mind to visit this hotel, one of the swankiest in Venice and way out of my price range. But then I heard that they have a shrine...

The Hotel Cipriani is on Giudecca and was opened in 1958 by the owner of Harry's Bar. Its website has a "golden book" list of some of the royalty and celebrities who have stayed there.

At one time, this hotel had the only swimming pool in Venice, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. You can see the Cipriani pool from the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore; I've got a photo of that pool somewhere (taken with film).

So anyway, I walked in, found the shrine quickly and easily, took some photos, and left. It looked like a beautiful hotel, but I didn't really feel like exploring. Plus I wouldn't know what to say to George Clooney if I ran into him anyway. Very nice shrine though!

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "High."

Most of the street shrines in Venice are at eye-level, but there are a few that are up high, second story or so. Not quite as easy to spot.

Below the jump, you can see the non-zoom versions where you can tell how high these shrines really are.

Thanks for visiting and have a happy weekend. You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Shrines with mosaics inside of them aren't that common, but there are a few of them around Venice. I posted a few a while back, and here's another one I found last year.

This one's in Cannaregio, and the mosaic is a copy of a sacred image of Madonna Addolorata (Our Lady of Sorrows) that can be found in the nearby church of San Marcuola. The owner of the house where the shrine is (on Calle Lombardo) commissioned the mosaic from the Orsoni family in 1970. The Orsoni are well-known mosaic artists who offer classes and also have a B&B in Venice. On one of the Venice episodes of her travel show, Samantha Brown took a mosaic class from them, and it looked like a lot of fun.

I wonder what the little padlock hanging beneath the shrine is for? Another note about this shrine - you can see where a graffiti "artist" wrote "Ciao!" on the base but someone has tried to clean it off. Venice has a graffiti problem, for sure, but it's unusual to see graffiti on a street shrine.

There are hundreds of shrines dedicated to Mary in Venice (with San Antonio shrines in a distant second place), so it's always interesting to find shrines dedicated to anyone else. I found a couple dedicated to St. Joseph (San Giuseppe in Italian), the earthly father of Jesus who also has one church in Venice dedicated to him (San Giuseppe di Castello or Sant' Iseppo in Venetian).

This first shrine is in Castello and has an inscription that translates to "St. Joseph, pray for us." It's interesting that it has the English name "Joseph" on it. The painting inside is a traditional image of a grandfatherly and peaceful Joseph cradling the infant Jesus.

This next one is tucked away in a dark calle in sestiere San Marco; Jesus is older and Joseph looks rather wild and woolly! The inscription on the cracked base of this one reads "1939."

And thank you so much to Bert for sending this lovely photo to complete my St. Joseph collection! Bert takes wonderful photos of Venice; you can see his work on Venice Daily Photo.

This shrine, installed in 2007, might be the newest shrine in Venice. It's interesting that they continue to add more street shrines (it makes me happy). This one is not far from San Rocco and the Frari; I wonder if this little corner had a pissotta before the shrine came along? Perhaps that's what the shrine is sitting on?

There's electric lighting and a Madonna and Child inside, a couple of angel carvings on the tabernacle, and an inscription, "Ave Maria Gratia Plena" (Hail Mary Full of Grace).

A beautiful shrine in San Polo, this one is unique with the vases on each side and the trailing vine surrounding it. Someone is taking very good care of this shrine - it's lovely.

IHS is carved on the top; thanks to google, I learned that this is a monogram of the name of Christ.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Joy."

There's so much amazing architecture in Venice, palaces and churches that I love to see. But it also brings me joy to find these charming little neighborhoods, especially when they have a happy and colorful shrine like this one, dedicated to San Antonio (St. Anthony of Padua).

Thanks for visiting! You can find more photohunters and see a list of upcoming themes on Gattina's website here.

Capitelli is the Italian word for shrines (singular: capitello), one of my favorite things to look for and find as I wander around Venice. Actually, there are several Italian "C" words connected to shrines.

Venice was one of the first cities in the world with an organized plan to light its streets at night. In 1128, the Doge of the Venetian Republic issued a decree that oil lamps in the shrines should be lit each evening at nightfall, a Middle Ages public works project-of-sorts. Venetians called these lamps cesendeli because the small flickering flames reminded them of fireflies (cicendelae). I love to imagine seeing the city when the shrines were the main source of light.

So here are a few capitelli. A shrine is usually a niche or a tabernacle with a sacred image inside. The vast majority of the shrines in Venice are dedicated to the Madonna with San Antonio (St. Anthony) a distant second.

Some of the capitelli are small and simple like this little niche that houses a statue of San Antonio holding the baby Jesus~

Others are larger and more elaborate~

Some of them still have lights inside, electric lights now~

I love the ones with flowers~

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

I'm participating in two PhotoHunts this weekend.

First up, the theme for this week's Saturday Photo Hunting is "twigs."

I took this photo this past November when the color of the leaves caught my eye. The more I look at it, the more I realize that the twig is tiny compared to the leaves. Must be stronger than it looks.

And next, I was happy to learn that long-time fellow photohunter, Archie (of Archie's Archives) has started a theme-based photo meme called Friday Foto Finder. This week's theme is "dedication."

As I wrote earlier this week, most of the street shrines in Venice are dedicated to the Madonna. But here's one that's different - this shrine is dedicated to Santa Lucia (St. Lucy) and can be found in the campo outside the church that is co-dedicated to her and San Geremia.

Thanks for visiting!

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

The Foto Find Challenges are here.

The theme for this week's Saturday Photo Hunt is "circles."

I love this theme even though I seem to take many photos of circles and it was tough to narrow it down. Here's a small collection of circles that can be found in Venice~

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

A lovely neighborhood shrine in Venice. Here's the approach down a narrow calle (street):

The plaque underneath the tabernacle says that the residents of this neighborhood erected this shrine in 1958 to honor and remember the victims of war.

There are hundreds of shrines on the streets of Venice, but this one is unique in that they went to the trouble of putting that wallpaper up behind the shrine. It's rather homespun but very sweet.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

There are many icons of Mary in the churches of Venice, and you can even find a few in the street shrines.

Venice also has a Museum of Icons close to the Greek church (San Giorgio dei Greci), and this first shrine below is near the museum with one of the icons represented inside.

This street shrine on the island of Murano pays homage to one of Venice's most revered icons, the Madonna Nikopeia in the Basilica di San Marco.

This one can be found on Giudecca.

Another one in mosaic that honors the Madonna Nikopeia.

This one is close to the church of Santa Maria Formosa.

If you're interested in icons (not just in Venice), I highly recommend this book by Sister Wendy Beckett, Encounters with God: In Quest of the Ancient Icons of Mary. It's a "road trip" pilgrimage book about Sister Wendy's travels to visit the eight oldest icons of Mary. These icons survived the 8th century wholesale destruction of all icons and religious art, making them some of the oldest Christian art in existence.

Five of them are in Rome, and the other three are in London, Egypt, and the Ukraine. The book has nice color photos, and it's amazing how unique and powerful these ancient sacred images are.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Many of the street shrines in Venice have artificial flowers. They are beautiful, and it's not always easy to tell if they are real or not.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring!

A large yellow street shrine in Venice with a long and interesting history~

At one time, this shrine contained a miracle-working image of the Madonna del Parto (of birth). The plaque underneath the shine commemorates this image along with the date (July 1612) when the image was moved inside the nearby church of Santa Maria Formosa.

Next to the shrine there's a place for offerings to the Blessed Virgin del Parto.

I wish I knew more about this one, especially the miracle stories. There's a chapel in the church dedicated to the Madonna del Parto, but I don't think the painting in the chapel is the same as the one that's inside the shrine today. You can see the initials "MDP" in the ironwork. I bet that in 1612, this shrine wasn't painted yellow!

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

...or "nicchia" in Italian. Some street shrines are tabernacles hanging on the wall but others, like these, are a niche inside the wall.

All of these Venetian shrines have the Virgin Mary inside but as you can see, she has many faces and styles.

As I said in my "G is for Graffiti" post, Venice has a graffiti problem. It's rare to see a street shrine defaced but the one below has some spray paint on Mary's face.

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Here are a few shrines in Venice, all dedicated to Mary but each one unique.

This one is on the lighthouse on the island of Murano~

This one, with a mosaic Mary inside, has metal shutters with an "M" embossed on them. Once the sun goes down, someone in the neighborhood comes and closes the shutters.

I love the textures of the wall behind this shrine and also the colors inside. This one has an "M" too.

Many shrines have floral tributes but this one has a simple green sprig~

There are many many shrines in Venice and I haven't found them all yet!

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Yay! We've made it to Z, the last letter in the alphabet. This has been a fun challenge. Thanks to all the folks who have visited and left such lovely comments on my blog.

So, here is the Zattere (the word means "rafts"). If you go to Venice, you're sure to spend some time walking along the waterfront street (or quay) called the Zattere and admiring its fantastic views.

From "Venice and Its Lagoon" by Giulio Lorenzetti:

"This broad promenade was known in the old days as la Carbonaria from the coal which was unloaded here. It was paved in 1519 and is today one of the prettiest walks in the city at midday along beside the wide Giudecca Canal, looking towards the Giudecca island. The name comes from the "zattere" (rafts) of timber which were brought down the rivers and moored here."

This coming weekend is the Festa del Redentore, a celebration that began in the mid-16th century to celebrate the end of a terrible outbreak of plague in Venice. The Venetians build a temporary bridge from the Zattere across the Giudecca canal to the church of the Redentore and walk across in thanksgiving.

Here is a view of some of the buildings along the Zattere, taken from a vaporetto in the canal. The larger church is the Gesuati and the smaller one is Santa Maria della Visitazione.

Zattere is also the name of a vaporetto (water bus) stop in this part of Venice~

Another view of the Zattere stop and the church~

Walking along the Zattere, you might notice this former door that's now a window with a sculpture of a girl with her hair tied beneath her chin~

You can also find this small shrine along the Zattere~

There's a silver saint inside the shrine. It might be Padre Pio but I'm not sure.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!

Many of the street shrines in Venice have metal gates protecting the sacred image inside. The decorative metal work is often beautiful though it can make photographing the inside of the shrine a challenge.:)

This shrine, close to the Rialto market, has a metal sunburst or floral pattern on its gate. There's been a shrine at this location since 1310 - the original shrine was probably dedicated to San Matteo (St. Matthew); there was a now-demolished church dedicated to San Matteo nearby.

The sacred image inside this shrine today is a statue of the Madonna and Child. Sometimes Jesus is a baby but in this case, he's an exuberant toddler throwing his arms out to bless us.

There's another interesting metal feature of this shrine. On either side, the marble is carved with an image of a vase or urn, and a little piece of metal is inserted in the carving so that a floral offering can be attached. So charming!

The photos above were taken in 2010. Here's an interesting comparison below - the same shrine as seen in 2008. Lots of changes!

The sacred image was a framed painting of Mary, not a statue, and there aren't any green sprigs in the metal thingamajigs on the sides. Looks like the marble has been cleaned since 2008 too.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

A few shrines in Venice with paintings (or copies of paintings) inside of them~

This shrine contains a copy of a painting of the Madonna and Child; the original resides in the nearby church of the Gesuati. The tabernacle is dated at the bottom: 1860.

The painting inside this shrine is very degraded, but the the orange metal flowers are cheerful and make me smile. This one is dated too, in Roman Numerals, MDCLXV (1665).

This fancy Baroque shrine is dated 1717. That date applies to the elegant marble tabernacle, not to the image inside which is a copy of a painting of the Virgin of Lourdes.

The Deposition of Christ. This painting looks familar but I can't place it. Anyone recognize it?

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

I like this theme. Gonna be fun to see what everyone comes up with. I'm got a few street shrines in Venice.

This shrine has shelves on each side with flowers on them. On the metal front is an inscription that says that the shrine was erected by Bello Angelo as an ex-voto (votive offering) in gratitude for the danger he survived on January 21, 1957. I'd love to know the story!

This shrine is sitting on a shelf.

This shrine has a shelf below for flowers. The inscription on this one translates to "Our Lady of Peace, Pray for Us."

I like these flowers made of glass beads. I bought some of these when I was in Venice one time.

The light inside this shrine is so big, it's blocking the view of the Madonna. I bet this one looks cool at night when the light's on.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

I love looking in to the street shrines of Venice to see what sacred image is inside. Most of the shrines are dedicated to Mary, and she has many many faces.

The second most popular saint honored in Venetian shrines is San Antonio (St. Anthony) who lived in nearby Padua (Padova), part of the Venetian Republic.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year.

Like so many of you, I've been heavy-hearted about this latest mass murder here in the USA. So I decided to join the 26 Acts of Kindness campaign to honor the children and teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary. Right now, I'm 17 out of 26, and plan to complete the rest before the new year.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

Some vivid yellow flowers next to a street shrine in Venice~

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

When in Venice, do as the Venetians do and eat cichetti, delicious little bar snacks usually eaten standing up and enjoyed with a glass of wine or two. One of the best places for cichetti is shown in the photo below, Cantinone gia Schiavi (also known as Al Bottegon), an eatery ranked in the Top Ten restaurants in Venice on Trip Advisor despite the fact that it's not a "sit down" restaurant at all - it's an osteria (a wine bar that serves food). It's a lively place, filled with both locals and tourists, and the food is wonderful. You can also buy a bottle of wine to take back to your hotel or apartment.

I love that this place has its very own shrine to the Madonna next to the entrance. She has a halo of electric red lights around her head~

The photo above was taken in 2007 while the one below is from 2010. The blue paint outlining the shrine had chipped off but she does have some flowers this time~

Another view of Cantinone gia Schiavi. This osteria is across the canal from the church of San Trovaso in Dorsoduro.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

A couple of shrines in the Rialto Market area of Venice~

This first one overlooks the Pescaria (fish market). The tabernacle with gothic columns dates back to the early 1300's, around the same time that the market began. The Madonna and Child relief inside the shrine dates to the 16th century. The "Ave Maria" inscription is faded but still legible, and there are always flowers on this shrine.

This Madonna can be found in the Sotoportego L'Erberia overlooking the outdoor dining area of restaurant Bancogiro. At one time, this area was part of the wholesale market which is now mainly on the other side of the building. The book, I Capitelli di Venezia, reports that at one time, the caretaker of this shrine was a gentleman named Terzantonio Gavagnin who had a wholesale booth underneath the shrine. Mr. Gavagnin was an activist in favor of continuing the tradition of blessing the fruit and vegetable market (erberia) on San Iseppo's (St. Joseph's) feast day which is coming up soon, on March 19.

The capitelli book says that this shrine was restored in 1920. I have a feeling that it's been restored again since then because it has those "go away pigeon" spikes on top. What are those things called?!?

Another lovely street shrine in Venice. The inscription on the top, Regina Pacis Ora Pro Nobis, translates from Latin to "Queen of Peace, Pray for Us."

There's a black-and-white print inside the shrine showing the Mother and Child with Saints, surrounded by a number of ex-votos, little metal ornaments with ribbons on top. These votive offerings of devotion are given in gratitude for an answered prayer.

Also inside this shrine, nestled in the bottom corner surrounded by pink roses, is a statue of Santa Rita da Cascia (1381-1457) - an Italian nun who became a saint.

And a charming little quirky detail - the yellow tulips are in a vase with a picture of a cartoon donkey kicking up his heels. Not sure who he is!

Electric power cords on one side, graffiti on the other~

Hard to see because the glass caught reflections of the buildings across the street from the shrine, but you can see another saint down at the bottom behind the tulips. This is San Pio X (Pope Pius X) who was pope from 1903-1914. Before he was pope, he was the Patriarch of Venice for ten years. He was canonized in 1954.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.