San Barnaba
Cutting down the side of the Carmini church takes you over the Rio di San Barnaba, along which a fondamenta runs to the church of San Barnaba. Just before the end of the fondamenta you pass the Ponte dei Pugni , the main link between San Barnaba and Santa Margherita, and one of several bridges with this name. Originally built without parapets, they were the sites of ritual battles between the Castellani and Nicolotti; this one is inset with marble footprints marking the starting positions. These massed brawls took place between September and Christmas, and obeyed a well-defined etiquette, with prescribed ways of issuing challenges and deploying the antagonists prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the aim of which was to acquire possession of the bridge. The fights themselves, however, were sheer bedlam, and fatalities were commonplace, as the armies slugged it out with bare knuckles and steel-tipped lances prefabricated from hardened rushes. The lethal weaponry was outlawed in 1574, after a particularly bloody engagement which was arranged for the visit of Henry III of France, and in 1705 the punch-ups were finally banned, and less chanceful forms of competition, such as regattas, were encouraged instead. Pugilists have now been replaced by tourists taking shots of the photogenic San Barnaba grocery barge moored at the foot of the bridge.
The huge, damp-ridden and deconsecrated San Barnaba church, built in 1749, has a trompe l’oeil ceiling painting of St Barnabas in Glory by Constantino Cedini, a follower of Tiepolo. Despite recent restoration, the ceiling is being restored again because of moisture damage.
San Barnaba is open regular 7.30am-noon & 3-7pm; opening times may vary during exhibitions.
At the time of the church’s construction the parish was swarming with so-called Barnabotti , impoverished noble families who had moved into the area’s cheap lodgings to eke out their meagre incomes. Forbidden as members of the aristocracy to practise a craft or run a shop, some of the Barnabotti supported themselves by selling their votes to the mightier families in the Maggior Consiglio, while others resigned themselves to subsistence on a paltry state dole. Visitors to the city often remarked on the incongruous sight of its silk-clad beggars - the nobility of Venice were obligated to wear silk, regardless of their ability to pay for such finery.
Category: Venice
