Basilica Santi Maria e Donato - Saint Donatus in Murano Venice

Basilica of Santi Maria e Donato

« The weather is fine. Let's take a double-oared gondola and sail to Murano, once the lullaby of Venice's first painters, now fallen, still the capital of glass. capital of blown glass and lace.

Another day, perhaps, I'll visit its factories.

There's still a pretty Romanesque church here, evocative of the past - let's go and see it!
All Italian domed churches are derived from the Florentine dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, and all are Brunellesco's offspring.


Basilica Santi Maria Donato The nave of the Basilica of Saint Michael of Murano is a church without a dome.

It has an exposed wooden floor, its paving is reminiscent of that of St. Mark's, and the half-dome at the back of the sanctuary is entirely covered in a plain gold mosaic, with only the long, standing figure of a hypnotic Byzantine Virgin standing out.

On the outside, the apse of this church is decorated with superimposed rows of full arches, which - did I mention this elsewhere? - suggests to me the idea of a Romanesque style with flowers.  »
Léopold Gironde - Souvenirs from Italy 1907

Something simple and grandiose at the same time

Santi Maria e Donato Mosaic

It is half Roman and half Byzantine.

The apse, built on a polygonal plan with two rows of superimposed arcades, is particularly interesting.
Inside, the richness of the materials used is in harmony with the extreme fervour of the period in which the church was built.

The three naves are supported by Greek marble columns from Altino.

A colossal twelfth-century mosaic Madonna adorns the semi-dome formed by the apse, and a rich mosaic pavement from the same period completes the austere decoration with its graceful arabesques.
The church's interior is rich in materials in keeping with the extreme fervour of the period in which it was built.

Basilica Santi Maria Donato The position of San Donato is extremely picturesque.

Its bell tower and apse, which dominate a small square half-covered with grass, have something simple and grandiose at the same time, providing a pleasant end to this graceful village set amidst the waters.

Retracing our steps, let us look at all these curious houses.

Most of them are in ruins; but none of them has that dirty, miserable appearance we were affected by on the Rio dei Tolentini, or on the Rio di San Andrea.

The walls crumble happily in the sun.

Parasitic plants loosen the stone blocks and marble slabs most cheerfully.

The balustrades suspended miraculously do not seem to threaten anyone.


Basilica dei Santi Maria e Donato The brickwork, which appears from time to time beneath the stucco and plaster, gives a pleasant colouring to the half-ruined walls, and on the most modestly inhabited residences today, old coats of arms carved in stone have been displaying their noble pretensions for five centuries.

The arcades and colonnettes follow one another.

Half disjointed, they lean in all directions and seem to want to collapse.

Not a line that is geometric, not a line that is straight: it is a pleasant jumble of old things and old houses; but nothing sad, reserved, sullen, inhospitable in this pleasant disorder.

It looks like an old man, with a wobbly head and wobbly legs, who, in the decline of life of life has retained the frank smile and communicative joy of his youth. »
Henry Havard - Amsterdam and Venice 1876

The Basilica dei Santi Maria e Donato - Saint Donatus of Arezzo

Santi Maria e Donato Mosaic

« The English go to Murano to visit the famous glassworks you know and have the luxury of having them made before their eyes, for a zwantzig (Note e-Venise.com : Venice was occupied by the Austrians at the time).

As for me, who had seen bottles blown at Sèvres, which is, in proportion, even more marvellous, I neglected the Murano flasks and had myself taken straight to the old church of Santo-Donato, a relic from the end of the Xe century!

Santo-Donato is a basilica that is almost Roman in plan and neo-Greek in the detail of its ornamentation, in other words a highly interesting building that proves once again that Romanesque architecture had not yet been born in the Veneto region at that time. Adolphe Lance - Excursion to Italy 1859

Basilica dei Santi Maria e Donato

The Islands of Venice: Murano, Burano and Torcello
Murano Master Glassmakers Demo