DK Travel : Venice : Campo Santa Margherita

Campo Santa Margherita

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This cheery, picturesque square in the district of Dorsoduro is a hive of activity day in, day out. It owes its name to the Christian martyr St Margaret of Antioch, possibly a fictitious figure but highly popular in medieval times. Patron saint of expectant mothers, she is depicted in a niche on the square’s northern wall with her emblem, the dragon. The square’s capacious form, exploited by local children on bicycles and in-line skates, is due to an ambitious enlargement project in the 1800s which opened up the south end by filling in canals.
For more on Venice’s Dorsoduro district (see Dorsoduro)

Top 10 Sights

1. Ex Chiesa di Santa Margherita

A writhing 14th-century dragon symbolizing the martyrdom of the saint enlivens the foot of the bell tower of the former church. It has been restored by the university as the Auditorium Santa Margherita.
2. Palazzo Foscolo-Corner

This beautiful palace is virtually unchanged since the 1300s and instantly distinguishable by its deep overhanging eaves. A striking Byzantine-style lunette, bearing an inset with the family crest, tops the entrance portal.
3. Scuola Grande dei Carmini

Glorious rooms decorated with Tiepolo’s masterpieces are highlights of this con-fraternity. The upstairs ceiling shows St Simeon Stock Receiving the Scapular from the Virgin .
4. Calle del Forno

An unusual series of medieval-style projections from a first-floor dwelling, partly held up by brick columns, is one of the features of this busy thoroughfare leading to Piazzale Roma and the bus terminal. The street is named after a long-gone bakery (forno ).
5. Casa dei Varoteri

A splendid bas-relief of the Virgin sheltering a group of tradesmen in adoration adorns the former tanners’ guild dating from 1725. Because of its isolated position, it was once mistakenly thought to be the house of the city’s executioner.
6. Corte del Fondaco

A charming covered passageway leads through to this minor courtyard where curious low bricked-in arches indicate the former site of a 1700s flour store. The name fondaco or store derived from the Arabic fonduq .
7. Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Carmini

This richly adorned church happily survived Napoleon’s suppression of the Carmelite order of monks in the adjoining monastery. Many of its 13th-century features are intact, such as the sculpted entrance porch.
8. The “House of the Moor”

Research has proved that Shakespeare’s Othello was based on Cristoforo Moro, son of a noble family sent to govern the island of Cyprus from 1508. This house at No. 2615 is his former home.
9. Rio Novo

9. Rio Novo

Excavated in 1932–3 to form a short cut from Piazzale Roma to the Grand Canal, the canal has been closed to vaporetti since the 1990s, due to building damage.
10. Altana Terraces

These timber roof platforms were common in Venetian palaces and used by the ladies of the house for bleaching their hair, which they exposed to the sun through a crownless wide-brimmed hat. They are now used for washing and drying clothes, and partying on balmy summer evenings.

Practical Information

Numerous take-away pizza slice outlets and bars serving sandwiches (tramezzini ) and rolls (panini ) make for a cheap lunch, and allow for the kids to run around. Dorsoduro Scuole Grande dei Carmini: 041 528 9420 open Apr–Oct: 9am–6pm Mon–Sat, 9am–4pm Sun; Nov–Mar: 9am–4pm daily admission € 5.00.