Madonna del Monte

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Madonna del Monte (Our Lady of the Mountain) island
Scomenzera San Giacomo, enetian Lagoon
Venice, October 2013

“The island Madonna del Monte, aka Madonna del Rosario, is a small island in the Venetian lagoon, located on the canal which connects Murano and Burano. It is dying a slow death. It housed a monastery for a period in the middle ages, but then lay abandoned for centuries, until another monastery was founded in the early 18th century. It lasted just one century before being closed and demolished by Napoleon, like so many other monasteries. In the 19th century it was used for gun powder storage, and the current building dates from this period. It is now suffering from death by waves. It once had a perimeter wall, but the intense motor traffic on the nearby canal has caused that wall to crumble and little of anything is now visible to the casual visitor. Once the wall is down, the constant waves quickly erode the sand and dirt the island is made of. The trees and shrubs near the edge die because of the salty water washing over the shore, and without the roots of the plants there is nothing left to keep the island together.” (The death of an island, René Seindal)