Torcello Island and Assumption Feast Day

If you want to do something different on mid-August, we suggest a visit to the little island of Torcello where the Feast of the Assumption in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta takes place with a religious ceremony at 4 pm. A free traditional sacred music concert by the Orchestra of Venice “L’offerta musicale” (music by Handel, Vivaldi, Bach and Pergolesi) will take place at 4.30pm. At 6.15 pm a short procession starts from Torcello’s other church, Santa Fosca to the cathedral for the Mass.
In the Basilica, have a good look at the floor mosaic (9th century) and at the mosaic work from the ninth and eleventh centuries of the chapel to the right of the high altar and at the Venetian-Byzantine school mosaic of the Apotheosis of Christ and the Last Judgement.
In Torcello the first settlements were established since Roman times. In 638 the Catholic bishop of Altino moved to Torcello and in 639 the Basilica of Santa Maria was founded. Torcello developed between the 7th and 10th centuries, thanks to commerce, at first fostered by the salt-mines and then by an ever-widening commercial sphere.
We suggest a visit to the Museum of Torcello, whose Archaeological section hosts greek-romanan finds and artefacts. The Medieval and modern section records the history of the island and its relations with the area of Altino, the Byzantine culture and the city of Venice. Some mosaic works and the altar of the 13th cent. were brought from the Basilica and the paintings, attributed to the workshop of Veronese,. from the ruined church of Sant’Antonio..