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The bell tower of San Marco is one of the most important symbols of
the city of Venice. Together with the homonymous basilica and the
underlying square of the same name, from which it takes its name, it is
the main monument of Venice and one of the symbols of Italy. The
Venetians affectionately call him El parón de casa (The master of the
house).
98.6 meters high, it is one of the tallest bell towers in
Italy, standing alone in a corner of Piazza San Marco, opposite the
basilica. Simple in shape, it is made up of a square-shaped, fluted
brick barrel with a side of 12 meters and about 50 meters high, above
which is the belfry, with arches.
The belfry is in turn
surmounted by a dado, on the sides of which two walking lions and the
female figures of Venice (Justice) are alternately depicted. The whole
is completed by the pyramid-shaped cusp, on top of which, mounted on a
rotating platform to function as a weather vane, is the golden statue of
the Archangel Gabriel. The base of the building is embellished, on the
side facing the basilica, by the small loggia by Sansovino.
The
bell tower has been the inspiration for several buildings, including
Sather Tower on the campus of Berkeley University, the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company Tower in New York City, and the Himmelbjerget Memorial
Tower in Denmark.
The building on which the bell tower was later erected originally
served as a watchtower and lighthouse and was begun in the 9th century
during the dogeship of Pietro Tribuno on foundations, according to a
controversial hypothesis, of Roman origin. The building was remodeled in
the 12th century by the architect Buono, during the dogeship of Domenico
Morosini, in imitation of the bell towers of Aquileia and above all of
San Mercuriale in Forlì, and again in the 14th century, during which
engineers were called from Holland and France to strengthen the
structure.
The tower, already seriously damaged in 1489 by
lightning, which destroyed the wooden cusp, was seriously hit by an
earthquake in March 1511, making it necessary to start consolidation
works. These works, begun by the architect Giorgio Spavento, were then
carried out under the direction of Pietro Bon from Bergamo, Proto of the
Procurators of San Marco, giving the bell tower its definitive
appearance. In particular, the belfry was rebuilt, made of marble, above
which, to give greater impetus, an attic was built on whose faces
sculptures depicting the lion of San Marco and Venice were placed, all
surmounted by a slender bronze cusp to make the tower visible from the
sea. The works were completed on 6 July 1513 with the placement of the
gilded wooden statue of the Archangel Gabriel, during a celebration
ceremony which is remembered by Marin Sanudo.
In 1609 Galileo
Galilei used this bell tower to demonstrate his telescope.
Numerous interventions were made over the centuries, often to repair the
damage caused by lightning: due to the height of the structure and the
iron structures that reinforced it, the bell tower had become a natural
lightning rod. There were numerous atmospheric discharges that struck it
over the centuries, setting it on fire, causing the top to fall or
causing holes in the structure. The greatest damages are reported in the
years 1388, 1489, 1548, 1562, 1565, 1582, 1653, 1745, 1761 and 1762. In
1653 it was Baldassare Longhena who supervised the restorations. Others
were carried out after, on April 13, 1745, yet another lightning caused
a gash in the masonry, causing, among other things, some deaths
following the fall of debris. Finally in 1776 the bell tower was
equipped with a lightning rod.
On the evening of 30 September
1786, Goethe on a visit to Venice climbed the bell tower to see the
panorama of the lagoon and saw the sea for the first time:
«Today I
got an even better idea of Venice by buying the map. After having
studied it more or less, I climbed the bell tower of San Marco, from
which the gaze embraces a unique spectacle. It was about noon and the
sun was shining so bright that I didn't need a telescope to distinguish
exactly between near and far. The tide covered the lagoon, and when I
turned to look at the so-called Lido [...] I saw for the first time the
sea and some sails on it.»
(Goethe, Journey to Italy)
In 1820
the statue of the angel was replaced with a new one, created by Luigi
Zandomeneghi and installed in 1822. Following the collapse of the bell
tower in 1902, the statue of the Archangel Gabriel was damaged and the
restoration was entrusted to Gioacchino Dorigo the which, at the time,
made artistic objects in wrought iron, copper and brass for his shop in
Calle dei Fabbri.
The collapse and the reconstruction
During
the spring of 1902 worrying signs appeared in the form of cracks and a
fissure on the northern side which gradually widened. According to the
studies of the architect Luca Beltrami, the main causes of the
progressive weakening and subsequent yielding are to be found in the
lack of solidity, the age of the monument itself and the alterations
made. Some technical inspections ruled out the presence of serious
structural problems. However, on 12 July the breakage of numerous "spy
glasses" (once used to check the evolution of the cracks in the walls,
now replaced by crack meters) and a copious fall of rubble were
detected. On the evening of July 13, a concert by the band of the 18th
Infantry Regiment that was supposed to be held in the square was
interrupted shortly before the start, amidst the discontent of the
crowd.
Finally, on the morning of Monday 14 July, at 9:47 (other
sources indicate 9:52 as the time of collapse), the bell tower
collapsed.
«The fissure on the side of the colossus opens
frighteningly: the mirror that faces the Basilica bends, tearing open
and while the crowd launches a prolonged scream and a gloomy noise of
ruins and crashes spreads, the enormous pinnacle of the belfry swings
with two or three slow movements from right to left and from left to
right, twisting the arches that support it and breaking them: the
colossus collapses on itself and yields, yields, bagging itself. The
earth shakes, a gigantic cloud of dust rises and the golden angel sinks
into it..."
The dust spills everywhere, like the ash of a
volcanic eruption, and blinds the terrified people who scatter by
breaking the windows of the shops in a mad flight". Shortly before, at
9:30, a team of technicians had supported a ladder for checks and had
had to flee hastily managing to clear the surrounding area.
There
were no casualties except for the caretaker's cat (a fact denied by some
journalists at the time) and, given the location of the building, the
damage was relatively limited. The loggia at the base of the bell tower
and a corner of Sansovino's library were completely destroyed. The
"stone of the ban", a squat trunk of a porphyry column, on which laws
were banned at the time of the republic, protected the corner of the
basilica of San Marco from the rubble, saving it from collapse.
In the evening, the city council, meeting urgently, decided to rebuild
it, allocating 500,000 lire to contribute to the work. Mayor Filippo
Grimani, during the speech on the occasion of the laying of the first
stone on 25 April 1903, repeatedly pronounced the famous phrase, which
would become the motto of this reconstruction:
"How it was, where
it was."
The works, based on a project by Luca Beltrami, which
saw among other things the reconstruction of the lions that had been
chiseled during the Austrian domination, lasted until 6 March 1912; the
rubble resulting from the collapse, once the reusable parts had been
recovered, were dumped into the sea near Punta Sabbioni.
In December 2004, during an underwater survey in the seabed in front
of the mouths of the Venice lagoon, Captain Andrea Falconi, aboard the
hydrographic unit M/n Milvus of the Safety-Sub s.c. of Venice, has
identified, at a depth of twenty meters, some outcrops made up mostly of
brick artefacts.
From the direct observations carried out by the
underwater operators of the Safety-Sub s.c. company, during the
execution of the video and photographic surveys, bricks of an ancient
appearance were identified, with dimensions of approximately 25x11x5 cm,
brick masonry blocks and other building residues in large amount.
Following the discovery, Captain Andrea Falconi recalled some texts
reported in the publication AA.VV. (1992) The bell tower of San Marco.
The collapse, the reconstruction, 14 July 1902–25 April 1912, Catalog of
the exhibition in Palazzo Ducale (14 July - 31 December 1992) for the
90th anniversary of the fall, curated by M. Fenzo, Milan, which
recounted the sinking of the stranded material resulting from the
collapse, mostly composed of crushed bricks.
In fact, the volume
shows that the architect in charge of the sinking, Giacomo Boni,
organized a real ceremony: the rubble was loaded aboard a barge towed by
a steamer, where "a truncated laurel" was placed and a brick wrapped
with laurel fronds from Aquileia, on which the architect himself
engraved the date 14 July 1902.
A procession left from San Marco,
heading three miles off the mouth of the port of San Nicolò, where a
little girl named Gigeta threw the engraved brick into the water,
starting the sinking.
Captain Andrea Falconi, in consideration of
the geographical position of the discovery site and the historical facts
cited, hypothesized that the materials identified could, in good
probability, belong to the rubble from the collapse of the ancient bell
tower of San Marco.
Promptly inform the Maritime Authority and
the Veneto Archaeological Superintendence of the discovery, the latter,
after an inspection, confirmed the hypothesis.
The new bell tower
The new bell tower was inaugurated on 25 April 1912, on the occasion of
the feast of San Marco. The inauguration of the rebuilt bell tower was
also celebrated with a philatelic issue, consisting of two values (5 and
15 cents of a lira), in whose vignette, on the sides of the bell tower,
the inscriptions stand out: "Come era, dove era" on the right and the
dates of the collapse and the end of the works, in Roman numerals, on
the left. The issue was sold exclusively in the post offices of the
Veneto region; circumstance, this, similar in the philatelic field to
that which occurred in 1910 with the issues that celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of the Risorgimento in Sicily and of the plebiscite of
southern Italy (the first commemorative issue in Italian philatelic
history), issues that were sold respectively only in Sicily and in the
former Neapolitan provinces.
Recent history
In 1932, an
elevator was installed along the barrel of the bell tower which allows
visitors to admire the landscape of Venice from above, reaching the
belfry in 30 seconds.
In the night between 8 and 9 May 1997, a
group of Venetian separatists, later defined as very serene, occupied
the square and the bell tower of San Marco. After a few hours, the
intervention of the Carabinieri GIS put an end to the demonstration.
In 1819/20 the founder Domenico Canciani Dalla Venezia cast a new
concert, consisting of 5 bells, with the remains of the old bells
(including the largest, weighing over 40 quintals); of this concert, in
the collapse of 1902, only the main bell survived, heir to the famous
Marangona. The bells broken during the collapse of the bell tower were
instead recast, reusing the fragments of the old 4 bells to melt the new
ones. These new bells were donated by Pope Pius X. The new concert, made
by the Barigozzi founders of Milan in 1909 in a specially built foundry
on the island of Sant'Elena, is made up of five bells, whose names are
linked to the occasions in which were formerly used:
Marangona or
Carpentiera or Campanon (earlier), note La2, cast by Domenico Canciani
in 1819/20, diameter of 180 cm; weight of 36.25 quintals;
it is the
main bell and the only one to have survived the collapse of the previous
bell tower in 1902; its tolling announced the beginning and end of the
working hours of the marangoni (from which the bell takes its name),
i.e. the carpenters of the Arsenale (and this traditional sound has
remained in part today with the expanse of the Ninth at midday, which in
addition to announcing the Angelus, reminds us of the end of working
hours; and at 2.00 pm, with the ringing of the 2 smaller bells, to
announce the start of afternoon work, in fact). Marangona also played
for the sessions of the Great Council.
Ninth or mezzana (second),
falling B2 note, cast by the Barigozzi Brothers of Milan in 1909,
diameter 156 cm; weight of 25.56 quintals;
It has always rang at noon
and midnight and it still rings at noon and midnight, it was the time
when the last letters could be sent to the Rialto.
Trottiera (third),
note C♯3 falling, cast by the Barigozzi Brothers of Milan in 1909,
diameter 138.5 cm; weight of 18.07 quintals;
It rang to give the
second signal to the nobles who were to attend the meetings of the Great
Council.
Pregadi or Pregadio or Mezza Terza (fourth), D3 waning, cast
by the Barigozzi Brothers of Milan in 1909; diameter of 129cm; weight of
13.66 quintals;
He played for the meetings of the Senate, whose
members were called Pregadi; for all religious functions and at the
crack of dawn.
Renghiera or Maleficio (fifth), note E3 waning, cast
by the Barigozzi Brothers of Milan in 1909, diameter 116 cm; weight of
10.11 quintals;
it is the smallest of the bells and announced the
executions that took place between the columns of San Marco and San
Todaro.
The plenum, i.e. the ringing of all the bells at the same
time, took place only for the major solemnities of the liturgical year
and for the feast of San Marco (April 25).
These 5 bells were
momentarily jammed with the wooden blocks by Morellato, originally
electrified in 1953 by the Swiss company "Schlieren - Wagons &
Ascenseurs", and currently under maintenance by Vanin of Trebaseleghe
(PD), which redid the system in 1996.
In January 2018, the
Prosecutor's office of the Basilica of San Marco decided to install 5
external electro-firing devices for each of the 5 bells. These "hammers"
simulate, by means of disorderly tolling, the traditional momentum sound
(bell in movement or rather rocking in which the clapper flies and
strikes the upper side of the bronze). Already in 2017, a hammer had
been installed on the second bell called Nona to simulate the midday
expanse. These hammers have been installed for the safety of tourists
although the bells are serviced every month and no accidents have ever
occurred. Not even the plenum of the 5 bells on solemnities is no longer
performed with the bells ringing during the opening hours of the bell
tower.
"The shadow"
In the past, the base of the bell tower
was surrounded by taverns and wooden shops. which were demolished
following a resolution of the City Council in 1872. From these derives
the Venetian way of saying andemo a béver n'ombra (let's go drink a
shadow), a metonymic contraction for andémo a béver un gòto de vin a l
'ombra del campanìl (let's go and drink a glass of wine in the shade of
the bell tower). Furthermore, at the time of the Venetian republic, some
crimes, especially if committed by the clergy, were punished with the
suplisio dela chèba or with the exposition of the condemned person in a
cage, hung from the bell tower.
During the carnival of Venice, on Shrove Thursday, one of the attractions consisted in the flight of the angel or the Turk. It was the performance of a tightrope walker who descended from the bell tower to a boat anchored in the basin of San Marco walking along a rope. Later, probably due to falls, he was replaced by a wooden dove. Even today, with some variations on the original theme, you can watch the show of the flight of the dove, during the Sunday before Shrove Thursday. However, the route goes from the bell tower to the loggia of the Palazzo Ducale, staging the ancient rite of paying homage to the doge with a scepter who proclaims the beginning of the Carnival in a jubilation of confetti and balloons. To be exact, it was the carnival of 2001 that marked a return to the tradition of eighteenth-century carnivals by re-staging, after centuries, the flight of the angel, as it was in the times of the Serenissima. In fact, since that year the symbolic event of the carnival, the flight from the bell tower of San Marco to the Palazzo Ducale, has once again been performed by an "angel" in the flesh, replacing the more recent puppet dove.
The bell towers of the churches of Sant'Eufemia in Rovinj, San
Giorgio in Pirano and Trezzo sull'Adda were built on the model of the
older Venetian brother.
The bell tower of the Church of Santa Maria
Immacolata and San Giovanni Berchmans in Rome is inspired by the
Venetian bell tower, although with some differences: in addition to
having overall smaller dimensions, the belfry has 3 windows on each side
instead of 4, the nut is placed below the cell itself instead of above
and on 2 faces it bears a clock, on the top there is a cross and not an
angel, the barrel has 2 grooves instead of 4.
In Las Vegas, Nevada,
one of the attractions is the Venetian hotel. The hotel is a spectacular
reproduction of Piazza San Marco, including a replica of the bell tower
several tens of meters high.
The designers of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company Tower in New York took inspiration from the bell
tower.
At the time of its first ascent, which took place in August
1902, a peak of the Marmarole Group took the name of the bell tower that
had just collapsed.
Sather Tower at the University of California,
Berkeley (designed 1903 and completed 1915) is commonly known as Il
Campanile because its design was inspired by the bell tower of San
Marco.
The bell tower of the Church of San Rocco in Dolo (built
between 1790 and 1836) is very similar to the bell tower of San Marco
although smaller in size.