Venice’s forgotten cemeteries

Chances are that, during one of your walks through Venice, you already passed over the dead bodies of its former citizens.

Before the construction of the cemetery island

San Michele, the cemeteries in Venice were located in the very heart of the city. One of these campi or ancient cemeteries is located a stone’s throw away from St. Mark’s square near the Campo Santo Stefano: The Campiello Novo o dei Morti (“…of the dead”).

The monks of the nearby church Santo Stefano

found their last resting place in this cemetery, but after the Black Death in the 17^th century the campo had to be raised due to the high number of corpses and because of hygienically reasons.