Torcello Island Historical Timeline

Origins

Torcello was settled in the 5th century by mainland residents fleeing barbarian invasions for the relative safety of the lagoon -- part of the same wave of settlement that would eventually produce Venice itself.

Turning points

By the early Middle Ages, Torcello had grown into a genuine trading town with its own bishopric, and its cathedral, consecrated in 639 AD, is older than any comparable building in Venice proper. At its medieval peak, some estimates put Torcello's population in the thousands -- larger, for a time, than Venice's own.

Cultural evolution

Torcello's decline was as gradual as its rise. Silting canals turned the surrounding lagoon into malarial marshland, while Venice's own growing wealth and safer harbor drew trade, and eventually people, away. Stone from Torcello's abandoned buildings was reportedly quarried for construction elsewhere in the lagoon, including in Venice itself.

Present-day significance

Today Torcello has only a small handful of permanent residents, and its surviving buildings -- the cathedral, the church of Santa Fosca, and a scattering of houses -- are what remain of what was once the region's largest settlement. That near-emptiness is itself part of what visitors come to see: a direct, physical sense of what Venice's own lagoon settlements looked like before Venice won out.