Mazzorbo is one of various islands in the northern part of the Lagoon of Venice. Like the other islands in this part of the lagoon, it was the site of one of the earliest settlements in the lagoon which predated the development of Venice. However, these islands then declined and were eventually abandoned. In the 1980s the architect Giancarlo De Carlo built a brightly coloured residential neighbourhood to help to repopulate Mazzorbo. In 2019 its population was 256. It is linked to Burano by a wooden bridge. It was once an important trading centre but is now known for its vineyards and orchards. Its main attraction is the fourteenth-century church of Santa Caterina.
Geography Mazzorbo is situated next to the island of Burano, to its north, to which it is linked by a bridge, and to the west of the island of Torcello. It lies to the north of the palude di Santa Caterina marsh and to the west of the palude del Monte marsh. The canals around the island are the Canale Borgogni and Canale di Burano channels to the west, the Canale Scomerzera di Mazzorbo channel (the western end of which separates it from Burano) to the south, the Canale Santa Caterina channel (which separates it from the Santa Caterina island) to the east and the Canale di Mazzorbo channel to the north. The latter separates Mazzorbo from the larger Mazzorbetto island. Mazzorbo is linked to the island of Murano and the central part of the lagoon by the Canale Scomenzera di San Giacomo canal.
Mazzorbo is part of a group of four islands. To its west there is the island of Santa Caterina to which Mazzorbo is separated by the Santa Caterina channel. The two islands are connected by two bridges. The Santa Caterina island was split into two in 1928 when an extension of the Canale di Mazzorbo channel (the Santa Margherita canal) was dug to connect Mazzorbo’s northern shore to the Canale Scomerzera San Giacomo canal. To the north there is Mazzorbetto, which is separated by the some-60 m wide Canale di Mazzorbo channel. Although in Italian Mazzorbetto sounds like “little Mazzorbo,” it is the largest island of the group.
Etymology In the past Mazzorbo was variously called Maioribus or Maiorbo (1137), Maiorbenses (1143) or Maiurbo (1228).Pellegrini, G. B., Dai Veneti ai Venetici, in Storia di Venezia, Vol. 1 - Origini, Età ducale, Treccani, 1992
Jacopo Filiasi, a late 18th/early 19th century historian, argued that the origin of the name Mazzorbo was the Latin term Major Urbs, Major Urbi, and Majurbium, Great or Major Town, and that this settlement was the largest town in the whole of Byzantine Venezia Marittima, the coastal area of north-eastern Italy which was under the Byzantines in the 6th century.Filiasi, J., Memorie storiche de' Veneti primi e secondi, Padova, Presso il seminario, 1812 However, the work of many historians, including Roberto Cessi, has shown that Mazzorbo was never mentioned in the ancient and medieval chronicles.Cessi, R., La Repubblica di Venezia e il problema adriatico, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Napoli 1953 Therefore, this hypothesis seems unlikely. It has been suggested that Filiasi’s interpretation came in the context of the patriotic and aggrandising panegyric typical of 19th-century Venice and anti-Austrian rhetoric during the Austrian occupation.Menegaldo, S. Madorbo-Mazzorbo, Note sull’origine di un toponimo plavense e lagunare, “Progetto di paesaggio motore dello sviluppo economico” AIAPP (Associazione italiana di Architettura del Paesaggio) symposium, Mazzorbo, 12 April 2014
In the basis of the lack of mentions of Mazzorbo in the old chronicles, Cristoforo Tentori Spagnuolo, another late 18th/early 19th century historian, argued that the origin of the name Mazzorbo was Medium Urbis, ”Town in Between” or “Town in the Middle” (of other towns).Abate Cristoforo Tentori Spagnuolo, Saggio sulla storia civile, politica, ecclesiastica e sulla corografia e topografia degli Stati della Repubblica di Venezia ad uso della nobile e civile gioventù, Book 11, Venice, 1789, pp. 68-69
A Roman stone inscription which was discovered in the 19th century, the Epigrafe Torcellana (Torcello Epigraph), commemorates a donation to the town of Altinum by Tiberius Claudius Nero who, during his consulate (13-14 BCE) built temples, porticoes and gardens. It describes the town, its districts and gates and mentions the Maedium Urbis gate. The inscription was placed on this gate, which was in the northeast of the town. This name also appears in other sources, where it is sometimes written as Medium Urbium or Mediurbium. This was also the name of the sixth district of the town. According to Simone Menegaldo, the refugees from Altinum gave this name to this island because it was in between other islands they settled (Burano, Torcello, and Costanziaco).
History It is often held that the settlements in Mazzorbo and the other islands in the northern part of the Lagoon of Venice were built by refugees from the nearby coastal town of Altinum either when it was destroyed by Attila of the Huns in 452 or from the inland areas of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions when they were conquered by the Lombards in 569-615.Massimiliano Pavan, M., Girolamo Arnaldi, G., Le origini dell'identità lagunare, in Storia di Venezia, Vol. 1 - Origini, Età ducale - Aquileia, Grado, Malamocco, Treccani, 1992. However, in 1881, archaeologists discovered Mycenaean pottery on the island, which shows that there was already commercial activity in 1600–1100 BCE.Uggeri, G., La laguna e il mare, in Storia di Venezia, Vol. 1 - Origini, Età ducale - Ambiente e insediamenti, Treccani, 1992 Dawkins, R.M., Mycenaean Vases at Torcello, "Journal of Hellenic Studies", 24, 1904, pp. 125-128
Like the settlements on other islands of the northern part of the lagoon (Torcello, Costanziaco, Ammiana and Burano) Mazzorbo was one of the earliest settlement in the Lagoon which predated the development of Venice. These settlements thrived from the 9th to the 14th century when they were the hub of maritime trade with the Adriatic Sea and the rest of the Mediterranean Sea. Flaminio Corner, an 18th-century historian, wrote that "[the island of Mazzorbo] is divided into two by a wide canal which flows in the middle and separates the island into a western and eastern part, it lies among other islands, a long time ago it was a breathing space of the Nobles, when they were dedicated to a fruitful maritime trade."Corner, F., Ecclesiae Venetae antiquis monumentis nunc etiam primum editis illustratae ac in decades distributae, vol. I, Venezia, p. 297.
Mazzorbo and the other islands in the area declined with the urbanisation of Rivoalto, which developed into the city of Venice and became the dominant centre of the lagoon. Many families moved to Venice. In addition, there was environmental degradation caused by floods which eroded the banks of the islands and various buildings, the expansion of the surrounding marshes and problems with malaria. Eventually, Mazzorbo and other islands in the area were abandoned.
With the depopulation of this part of the Lagoon of Venice, many religious institutions were established on these islands. Despite not being a large settlement, Mazzorbo had five monasteries and five parish churches. The monasteries were Santa Eufemia (which was dissolved and demolished in 1768), San Maffio (which was dissolved and demolished during Napoleon's occupation of Venice and its lagoon), Santa Maria Valverde, Santa Maria delle Grazie and Santa Caterina. The parish churches were: San Pietro, San Bartolomeo (which was demolished in 1810 during the Napoleonic occupation), San Angelo, Santo Stefano and Santi Cosma e Damiano.Mazzorbo Scomparsa With the decline of the island and with the dissolution of churches and monasteries, all of these churches and monasteries, except for the Santa Caterina church, were demolished and no trace of them remains.
The above mentioned names (Maioribus, Maiorbo and Maiurbo) referred to a settlement which comprised all of the three-island group (prior to the splitting of the S. Caterina island in 1928). In fact, the San Matteo monastery was on the Santa Caterina island. The Sant' Eufemia monastery was in the southeast of the Mazzorbetto island, along the Canale di Mazzorbo channel and with its entrance facing the Canale Bognoni channel which leads to Torcello. The San Pietro church was at the southwestern end of Mazzorbetto.
Not much is known about the life and the politics of Mazzorbo before its abandonment. There are only archival documents which mainly record information about its religious institutions. The monasteries also provided for the education of young noble women. Through this connection with the nobility, the churches and monasteries of Mazzorbo were endowed with artworks by painters and other artists who were renown at the time.
Disappeared churches and monasteries San Pietro Parish Church The only archival document relating to the parish church of San Pietro is dated to 1207. It was probably Mazzorbo’s main church. The date of its construction is not known. It seems that it was built with materials from Altinum and thus could be dated to the 7th-8th century. Tradition notes its beauty and the marble columns of its portico and claims that St. Francis and St. Antony preached here. Over the main altar there was a panel with “St. Peter and St. Paul” by Pietro Ricchi and over the St. Margaret altar there was the Madonna, St. Bartholomew and St. Margaret panel by Francesco Ruschi.Zanetti, A.M., Descrizione di tutte le pubbliche pitture de la Città di Venezia e isole, Venezia 1733, pag. 459Boschini, M., Le Minere della pittura, Venezia, 1664, p. 547
There was a gilded silver altarpiece which was probably kept in the main altar and then, as noted in a 1681 pastoral visit by the bishop of Torcello, was put at the bottom of a large crucifix in front of the main chapel which shared the nave of the presbytery with an iconostasis with the twelve apostles. It was probably the type of 12th-century Venetian goldsmith work inspired by Byzantine iconographic elements. It was made of gilded silver tiles nailed to wooden panels with sacred images which represented the Madonna, the Saints and Christ the Saviour.Archivio Comunale Publico di Venezia, Diocesi di Torcello, v.p. Grimani 1594, v. p. Vianoli 1682.Niero, A., Notizie di Archivio sulle pale di argento delle lagune venete, in “Rivista Studi Veneziani”, Venezia 1979, pag. 281.
From the 14th century, Mazzorbo underwent a period of slow decline and became depopulated. San Pietro became impoverished. In 1736, Ferrazzi, a parish priest, complained about having to resort to act as a chaplain for the St. Matthew nuns to get some money because donations to the church were not enough to get by despite getting an annual income from two secular confraternities. With the dissolution of churches and monasteries ordered during Napoleon's occupation of Venice the derelict church was demolished. Now there is only a plot of land which belongs to the current parish church of Santa Caterina. The precious altarpiece was lost.
San Bartolomeo Parish Church