The island that used to be bigger than Venice

Here's the Torcello fact that still catches me out. Long before Venice was Venice, Torcello was the real power in the lagoon, a thriving city of up to twenty thousand people, wealthier and more important than the city that would eventually eclipse it completely.

No war brought it down. What did it in was slower and quieter than that. Its harbour silted up until trade became impossible, its canals turned stagnant, and malaria moved in and never really left. So people just drained away, generation by generation, until a city of twenty thousand became a village of a few hundred, and eventually a scattering of houses holding barely a dozen residents. Wander the island today and you'll find Attila's Throne, an ancient stone seat where legend says the Hun himself once sat, though historians think it was probably just an old chair for Torcello's own council.

I painted the island in watercolour and ink, that quiet church against the trees. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Torcello, Venice · Travel Poster