In 1807 it was decreed unsanitary to continue to bury bodies in Venice and the cemetery on Isola di San Michele (nicknamed The Island of the Dead) was created. Bodies were ferried across from Venice on special funeral gondolas.
These views are from the vaporetto (water bus) as it leaves Cannaregio at the Northeast of Venice.
Many famous personages are interred here, including Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Ezra Pound.
What a great idea for Cemetery Saturday! This has to be the most elegant cemetery ever.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that ferrying bodies to a hallowed island was considered very hi-tech in the 1800s!
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