Torcello Island

Torcello is the oldest inhabited island in the Venetian lagoon, home to a 7th-century basilica with extraordinary Byzantine mosaics that rank among the finest in northern Italy. Settled in the 5th and 6th centuries by mainlanders fleeing barbarian invasions, Torcello was the lagoon's first major settlement. At its peak around the 10th century, the island may have supported a population of 20,000, larger than Venice itself at the time. Malaria, silting canals, and the rise of Venice as a commercial power gradually drained Torcello of its inhabitants. Today, fewer than a dozen people live here year-round, and the island has an almost eerie stillness that makes it feel ancient in a way Venice no longer does. The main draw is the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, founded in 639 AD and considered the oldest building in the lagoon. Its interior holds a towering Last Judgment on the west wall and a luminous golden Madonna and Child in the apse, both dating to the 11th and 12th centuries. Next door, the smaller Chiesa di Santa Fosca is a lovely Greek-cross church from the 11th century. The walk from the vaporetto stop to the basilica follows a quiet canal path through overgrown fields, passing the so-called Throne of Attila (a stone chair of uncertain origin, probably a bishop's seat rather than anything Hunnic). The Museo di Torcello, housed in two small buildings near the basilica, displays archaeological finds from the island and surrounding lagoon. Torcello rewards visitors who want to feel the deep history beneath Venice's tourist surface.