TORCELLO (Turricellum). - Ancient episcopal see, an island in the municipality of Venice, from which it is 10 km away, to the north of the lagoon, with a few houses and some small palaces of architectural interest: a group (100 people) of vegetable growers, vine growers and fishermen lives there.
I. HISTORY
After the descent and the destructions of the Lombards, the population of Roman Altino (v.) emigrated permanently to T., where the episcopal see was also transferred. Churches, monasteries and dwellings soon arose, "so as to rival the abandoned city which, for its walled and turreted circuit, they wished to recall at least in the name of the new site: hence the name T. (Turricellum), perhaps indicating the existence of some watch and defense tower, if indeed it is not the transformation of an older name: Doreum" (Brunetti). It was encircled and defended by the islands of Mazzorbo, S. Niccolò de Cavana, S. Giacomo in Palùo, ancient Burano, Murano, Costanciaca, Centranica, S. Pietro di Casa Calbo, Ammiano and other lesser ones, so that the problem of the origins of Venice is closely connected to the history of T., where the first features were formed of what would later be, in spirit and in action, the great maritime Republic.
The consecration of the Basilica in 639 is attested by the epigraph that is the oldest document of the history and the lagoon consolation of Venice; Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in the middle of the 10th century, calls T. "a great emporium of trade and labor." From T. came that Rustico, one of the two sailors who brought the body of St. Mark from Alexandria in Egypt in their ships to the Venetian lagoons (year 828).
The conditions of T., even in the late Middle Ages, were better than those of other islands and coastal towns, if in the 15th century some of their convents migrated there. T. declined gradually as Venice absorbed its activity; but the determining cause must be considered the gradual silting of the lagoon and the consequent spread of malaria. The plunderers of marbles and stones hastened the work of destruction even though laws (1441) established penalties: "besides the whip, the thief shall have an eye gouged out without remission."
The series of bishops lasts until 1792; in 1659 the episcopal see was transferred to Murano; in 1818 it was annexed to the patriarchate of Venice.
II. ART
In its appearance as a lagoon center, T. preserves certain configurative elements that make it similar to Venice: the Rio Maggiore, which corresponds to the Grand Canal, other narrower rii, the paved fondamenta, campicilli, calli, the central piazza with the cathedral church and government palaces. In 639, by order of Isaac, exarch of Ravenna, the master of the soldiers erected the Basilica with a longitudinal plan, preceded by a portico (replaced in the 9th century by a narthex), with three naves divided by columns with a single central apse, flanked by prothesis and diaconicon; a structure and type that recalls the similar constructions of Ravenna, Parenzo and Grado; the baptistery in front was circular in plan with two large niches at the sides (7th century: sure traces survive). In the 9th century the two small apses were opened on the flat end walls; beneath the central apse (which Bettini considers to be of the 9th century), the crypt with a semi-annular development was created, and above it the other cathedra and the presbyterial steps were readapted with a facing of precious marbles. Bishop Orso Orseolo (1008) reworked the construction by raising the walls, opening windows, reinstalling columns, on whose capitals of various periods the arch springs directly from the high impost, renewing the iconostasis, the ambo (reworked in the 12th century), the floor with marble inlays; the arcades, which rhythmically punctuate the facade, raised in the 11th century, are of Ravennate taste and derivation.
Behind the Basilica, square and sturdy, rises the Romanesque bell tower (11th century). The mosaic decoration covers only certain parts of the Basilica and assumes high artistic and iconographic value: in the golden conch of the central apse the Madonna dominates, solemn and hieratic (probably of the 12th century); in the lower zone of the central apse, the twelve Apostles, and, above the triumphal arch, the Annunciation; in the basin of the small apses of the Most Holy, Christ enthroned with angels, and saints in the lower zone, are the work of Venetian workshops, which reflect Ravennate taste and influence (11th century, the period of the third reconstruction of the Basilica). To the same period may be referred the decoration of the vault comprising four angels who support the clipeus with the mystic Lamb: a mosaic conceived on a compositional scheme of Roman-Ravennate origin. On the end wall, the great 13th-century mosaic with the Last Judgment, of Byzantine tradition and derivation with an infiltration of Western elements. In its superimposed zones there follow: the Stavrosis or Crucifixion; the Anastasis or descent of Christ into limbo and resurrection of Adam and the Patriarchs from limbo; Christ as judge in the glory of the celestial court, and, at the center, the Deesis, that is, Christ within the iridescent almond of light between the Virgin and the Baptist, suppliants for humanity; the Hetoimasia, equivalent to the divine throne prepared for the Judgment and, at the sides, scenes of the resurrection of the flesh; the blessed and the damned, distinguished according to the different sins; in the last compartment, Adam, with the souls of the just, the Virgin praying, the good thief, the gate of Paradise guarded by a cherub, St. Peter with the keys and an angel "psychopomp"; in the space of the lunette, above the entrance door of the Basilica, in half-figure, appears the Virgin, in the attitude of one praying, asking for divine mercy: "O Virgin - says the inscription - with prayer, turn the Son of God to pity, erase every fault."
Of the sculptures, of various ages, one must recall: capitals of the 6th, 7th and 11th centuries, the reassembled episcopal cathedra (9th century), an altar front, now a tabernacle for the holy oils (7th century), the altar as a simple table on small columns, reconstructed in its original form and resting on a Roman sarcophagus (early 3rd century), which contains the body of St. Heliodorus, first bishop of Altino; the plutei of the "occasion," of the "wheel" (11th century); the Virgin enthroned with Child and the archangel Raphael, belonging to the "pala d'oro" of the Cathedral, a repoussé work of Venetian-Byzantine art (11th century), now in the Museum of the island of T., which preserves other relics, ceramics, fragments and works of painting and sculpture of various periods; a holy water stoup (11th century), the Virgin with Child by Pietro Lamberti (15th century); highly prized is the canvas of the Assumption by Tintoretto.
The reconstruction of the altar and the restoration of the Basilica are due to F. Forlati (1929). Together with the Basilica and the baptistery, the small church of S. Fosca (probably an initial martyrion) formed a unitary complex, with a central plan with one longer arm that includes the apse and the lateral small apses, the dome with a cap and an external portico: everything, from the plan to the balance of the members and the spaces, according to Bettini, betrays that decided and profound intervention of Byzantine taste which became (but not before the 12th century) one of the determinants of Venetian taste, grafting itself onto the previous, and always living, tradition of the Exarchate. - See pl. XXX.
