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Updated: June 1, 2025
The city was founded far back in the troubled morning of Christian civilization, by refugees from barbarian invasion, and built with stones quarried from the ruins of old Altinum, over which Attila had passed desolating. During the first ages of its existence Torcello enjoyed the doubtful advantage of protection from the Greek emperors, but fell afterward under the domination of Venice.
The houses of the city were built on piles; canals instead of streets formed the means of communication, and these were always filled with water artificially conducted from the southern estuary of the Po. Round Ravenna extended a vast morass, for the most part under shallow water, but rising at intervals into low islands like the Lido or Murano or Torcello which surround Venice.
But the only successful changes have been mediæval; and their nature will be at once understood by a glance at the varieties given on the opposite page. It will be well first to give the buildings in which they occur, in order. Santa Fosca, Torcello. | 14. Ca' Giustiniani, Venice. 2. North transept, St. Mark's, | 15. Byzantine fragment, Venice. Venice. | 16. St. Mark's, upper Colonnade. 3.
The first tribune was to live at Grado, with three others, called "maggiori," but depending upon him, one for Rivoalto, one for Candeana, and one for Dorsea, living at Rialto, Eraclea, and Torcello respectively. They had charge of the administration of justice, presided over the execution of the laws, enforced discipline, and met at times in council to discuss propositions laid before them.
This cathedral, however, with the church of Santa Fosca at Torcello, San Giacomo di Rialto at Venice, and the crypt of St. Mark's, forms a distinct group of buildings, in which the Byzantine influence is exceedingly slight; and which is probably very sufficiently representative of the earliest architecture on the islands.
Those who had courage and clear vision, who loved justice, who were patient and humble and unflagging, and who believed with an ineluctable conviction that righteousness exalteth a nation; they were the simple fishermen who in the little church at Torcello predicted the splendor and power of Venice; they were the stern pioneers of Plymouth and Boston who laid the foundations of an empire greater than that of Rome.
He had sought the solitude of early morning on the Lido, that he might learn, unobserved, what terrors fate had in store for him. It was doubtless Mrs. Bernauer's telegram which caused his present anxiety, a telegram which had reached him only the night before when he returned with his wife from an excursion to Torcello.
After this, an establishment for making the smalts and gold glass was set up at Murano, and Venice no longer imported its material. The old Cathedral at Torcello has one of the most perfect examples of the twelfth century mosaic in the world. The entire west end of the church is covered with a rich display of figures and Scriptural scenes.
On the mean and solitary front of the Casa dei Spiriti there shone a splendor of light; the lagoon was azure and gold; the main-land a mist of trees in their spring leaf; while far away the cypresses of San Francesco, the slender tower of Torcello, and the long line of Murano and farther still the majestic wall of silver Alps greeted the eyes that loved them, as the ear is soothed by the notes of a glorious and yet familiar music.
The Campo Santo The Vivarini The glass-blowers An artist at work S. Pietro A good Bellini A keen sacristan S. Donato A foreign church An enthusiast Signor "Rooskin" The blue Madonna The voyage to Burano The importunate boatman A squalid town The pretty lace workers Torcello A Christian exodus Deserted temples The bishop's throne The Last Judgment The stone shutters The Porto di Lido.
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