What happened on March 28 in Venice

According to the Venetian Liturgical Calendar, today is St. Pope Sixtus’ and St. Clement Martyr’s Day.

In 2021 it’s Palm Sunday.

- March 28, 1476: by privilege of the Senate Giovanni Caboto is appointed citizen 'de intus e de extra', as he is married to a Venetian woman and has been permanently residing in Venice for fifteen years; after going to England with his sons Lodovico, Sebastiano and Santo, he left Bristol in 1497 with ships given to him by King Henry VII and discovered the American continent, he then hoisted the English and Venetian flags with the Lion of St Mark in Terranova; his son Sebastiano was the first to circumnavigate the globe. In 1492 Columbus will instead land in the Bahamas islands.

- March 28, 1542: Lorenzo Lotto gives the friars of the Church of Ss. Zanipolo the painting depicting St. Anthony, a superb masterpiece in which there is a noticeable advance in modern painting. The pious painter renounces a large part of the agreed remuneration, leaving it to the Dominican friars so that, on his death, they will provide for his funeral and give him a Christian burial, dressed as a friar, in their convent. This painting is also famous because it depicts the customs of the time, in fact the artist wanted to insert a woman with a net on her face that seems to be among the first to be used.

- March 28, 1570: an envoy of the Turkish sultan Selim is received in the Collegio presenting an ultimatum for the Republic to surrender Cyprus, but the request is rejected.

- March 28, 1973: Patriarch Albino Luciani decrees the definitive deconsecration of the Church of Abbazia della Misericordia, which more than a thousand years earlier had been founded as Santa Maria in Val Verde from the name of the island where it stood. The last mass was celebrated there, by the Servants of Mary, on August 17, 1967, its subsequent uses, ranging from souvenir depot to film set to mosque for the Biennale, were the cause of heated discussions in the city.

Taken from 'Almanacco di Venezia -1600 anni ab Urbe còndita' by Andrea Gersich and Edoardo Rubini

Venice, 28th March 2021