Saving Torcello, an ancient church in the Venetian Lagoon — Transcript

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1. 0:00(gentle piano music)
2. 0:05- [Beth] I'm standing in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta
3. 0:08on the island of Torcello
4. 0:10with Melissa Conn from Save Venice.
5. 0:13We're about half an hour water taxi ride from Venice proper
6. 0:19in the oldest structure in the Venetian lagoon.
7. 0:22- [Melissa] Torcello was consider by Ruskin
8. 0:24the Mother of Venice.
9. 0:25This was the first area where the early Venetian settlers
10. 0:29came from the mainland to escape the Barbarian invasions,
11. 0:32but this is the swampiest part
12. 0:34and so it's understandable why Venice shifts
13. 0:36to what we know as Venice proper
14. 0:38and thrived during the Renaissance,
15. 0:40but Torcello is traced back
16. 0:42to the Byzantine era and earlier.
17. 0:45- [Beth] It's painful to think about the water
18. 0:47that was here so recently
19. 0:49and the imminent danger to the church,
20. 0:53and without the work that Save Venice
21. 0:55and others have done over the years,
22. 0:57we might lose that historical record.
23. 1:00- [Melissa] Salt is our biggest enemy at this point.
24. 1:03The salts have increased now since the floods
25. 1:06of November of 2019 when the church had over a foot of water
26. 1:10in it on several occasions.
27. 1:12And so that increased the salt that was already present.
28. 1:15It corrodes stone, it seeps up through the soil
29. 1:19and up through the very floor itself, which is also ancient.
30. 1:23It comes up through the sea water
31. 1:25and is also in the atmosphere,
32. 1:26and then when the water evaporates,
33. 1:28the salt crystals remain on the surface of the stonework.
34. 1:31It also swells as it dries.
35. 1:34The salt creates the rise in the pavements
36. 1:36and it disintegrates the bricks
37. 1:38which then weakens the structure
38. 1:40that hold the mosaics in place.
39. 1:42And so a lot of our work is desalinating,
40. 1:45and so you have to work brick by brick
41. 1:47to make sure the bricks are stable and not too full of salt.
42. 1:51But you don't want to replace too many bricks
43. 1:53because you don't wanna new wall.
44. 1:55- [Beth] And I think some people might ask
45. 1:57why not have a new wall, why preserve those bricks?
46. 2:00- [Melissa] It's really an incredible structure
47. 2:02here on Torcello,
48. 2:04and we've seen the evolution of the building
49. 2:06as each wall has different fragments,
50. 2:08and then some of the stonework is even older
51. 2:10because it comes from a Roman settlement on the mainland,
52. 2:13and so you have such a mix,
53. 2:15and that's very important.
54. 2:17- [Beth] It gives us a sense of the building through time,
55. 2:20and that's precious knowledge.
56. 2:23- [Melissa] In the 19th century,
57. 2:24people had no qualms about rebuilding and changing
58. 2:27and creating new elements,
59. 2:28and now you want to preserve as much
60. 2:31of the original elements,
61. 2:32make those original elements stable
62. 2:34and worthy of continuing in the future.
63. 2:37Save Venice was first involved in Torcello in the 1980s
64. 2:40in a campaign with other international committees
65. 2:43to preserve the mosaics.
66. 2:44Now Save Venice has returned to Torcello
67. 2:47as part of an anniversary project
68. 2:49to celebrate Save Venice's 50th anniversary,
69. 2:52and we have adopted two apses which have mosaics
70. 2:55that date from the 9th to the 11th century.
71. 2:59- [Beth] If you work on the mosaics, you have to work
72. 3:01on the architectural fabric of the church itself.
73. 3:04- [Melissa] Absolutely, our work now entails the inner walls
74. 3:07of the mosaics,
75. 3:08also the outer wall which supports the mosaic,
76. 3:11and that's most in danger because the brickwork is crumbling
77. 3:15from the salts, the mortar is disintegrating.
78. 3:18- [Beth] The other thing that we can think about
79. 3:19is the layers, the accretions of history.
80. 3:23So we look at that beautiful marble below the mosaic.
81. 3:27Part of it has been removed
82. 3:28where we see an even older fresco.
83. 3:31So there are constant decisions to be made.
84. 3:35- [Melissa] Save Venice works closely
85. 3:36with the Italian Ministry of Culture,
86. 3:38the Superintendency of Fine Arts and Monuments,
87. 3:40as well as architects and art historians and conservators,
88. 3:44and you have to decide if you remove something,
89. 3:46you know, which era are you going to retain.
90. 3:48In conservation today, we don't eliminate anything.
91. 3:51There are the fresco fragments from probably 11th century.
92. 3:54We're going to remove some other marble sheeting
93. 3:57to see if there are more fragments,
94. 3:58but chances are then that marble sheeting
95. 4:00will be put back up.
96. 4:01- [Beth] The deep faith of the people
97. 4:04who lived here is so evident in the mosaics
98. 4:06that Save Venice is working hard to preserve.
99. 4:10This golden apse with Mary holding the Christ child
100. 4:14as our sole focus,
101. 4:16and then on the archway above,
102. 4:18you see the Angel Gabriel on the left and Mary on the right
103. 4:22at the moment of the Annunciation,
104. 4:24the moment when God is made flesh,
105. 4:26the moment when mankind can be saved.
106. 4:29- [Melissa] Well, Torcello is very important was
107. 4:31that the Maria Assunta was the most important church
108. 4:33in this whole area and Mary is a very important figure.
109. 4:37The Annunciation, a very important interpretation
110. 4:39because March 25th, 421, is the day of the historic founding
111. 4:43of the city of Venice.
112. 4:44That's also the feast day of the Annunciation.
113. 4:47- [Beth] And then on the opposite wall
114. 4:49we have another fabulous mosaic,
115. 4:51this one incredibly complicated.
116. 4:53Subjects ranging from Christ taking Adam and Eve out hell,
117. 4:58a scene of the Last Judgment,
118. 5:01of Christ and Mary and John surrounded by the Apostles,
119. 5:05the river that flows down from Christ
120. 5:08in that lovely mandorla,
121. 5:11the angels awakening the dead from their graves,
122. 5:14the tortures of hell on Christ's left,
123. 5:16on the right, the blessed in heaven,
124. 5:19and you walked in and out through this west wall
125. 5:24of this church,
126. 5:25and Mary in the center, just above that doorway,
127. 5:28holding her hands out as though showing us on one side
128. 5:32the angel and on the other side the demons,
129. 5:35reminding us that on the day of our death we will be judged.
130. 5:39And there are side chapels and there we see an image
131. 5:42of Christ the Pantokrator, Christ the all-powerful judge
132. 5:48who judges all souls.
133. 5:50- [Melissa] What we call the Diakonikon apse,
134. 5:52and the Christ the Pantokrator mosaic
135. 5:54has the Angel Gabriel and the Angel Michael,
136. 5:57and then you have the angels holding up the Lamb of God
137. 6:01and all the various beasts and flowers.
138. 6:04Some of the floral imagery relates directly
139. 6:07to the plants that are found in the Venetian lagoon.
140. 6:10- [Beth] That plant life, that sense of greenery, of birds,
141. 6:13of life that we see remind us of paradise.
142. 6:17The church is a place
143. 6:19where one could imagine heaven on earth
144. 6:22and I can't imagine a more important place to be saved.
145. 6:26We're very grateful for the work that Save Venice is doing
146. 6:30and for your time today, thank you.
147. 6:32(gentle piano music)