The Church of Santa Caterina di Mazzorbo

Many tourists visit Burano, the famous lace making island in the Venice lagoon, but few, and usually by accident, head to the nearby Mazzorbo Island.

It is a very small island, where there are now less than three hundred inhabitants, mostly elderly or people working the land... Those who venture into this little island, however, are never disappointed, since there is a medieval church of incredible interest: Santa Caterina.

It is the only one left of ten churches that, over the centuries, were built on this island; the church of Santa Caterina was annexed to the nearby Benedictine monastery, which was destroyed during the Napoleonic suppressions. According to historical accounts, it was built in 783, but no trace remains of this first building.

The current building dates back to the end of the thirteenth century, although its original appearance has changed in the following centuries.

On the portal stands a Gothic relief depicting the mystical wedding of St. Catherine with, on the sides, a kneeling abbess and procurator; the atrium still has the old Gothic herringbone flooring and several stone fragments on the walls, probably deriving from the monastery destroyed in the 19th century.

The interior has maintained the fifteenth-century appearance, with the characteristic suspended barco, from which the nuns attended the mass.

To reach Burano and nearby Mazzorbo from Venice you can use Venice public transport: it is about 30/40 minutes by vaporetto!