Malamocco
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Malamocco was the first, and for a long time, the only settlement on the Lido of Venice barrier island. It was the location of the original home of the Doge of Venice. Located just south of the island's center, it is part of the Lido-Pellestrina borough of the Comune of Venice. It is sometimes mis-identified as Metamaucum, though the latter town was located on a nearby island, and was submerged by rising sea levels.[1]
Malamocco also refers to one of the three narrow channels in the barrier island chain that separates the Venetian Lagoon with the Adriatic Sea, the other two being the Lido and Chioggia channels. The Malamocco Channel, with a depth of 14 meters, is dedicated to cargo ships making use of the Marghera commercial/industrial port facilitites of the Port of Venice.[2]
Malamocco has a parish church now devoted to Santa Maria Assunta, but which was originally dedicated to Madonna della Marina, "Our Lady of the Sea". The church dates from the 12th century and is built in Veneto-Byzantine style.[3] It underwent modifications in 1339 and 1557. The belltower has a peal of four bells in the chord of F major, cast in 1803. It can be found in Piazza Maggiore in the picturesque district of Malamocco on Lido. In Malamocco there is also the ponte (bridge) Borgo, the Palazzo Pretorio and a monument in hexagonal form with Pisani family’s coat of arms. The Pisani governed Malamocco around the middle of 1537.
The interior of the church is based on one nave and with that dates in part to the 12th century, with 14th and 15th century additions. The 15th-century Palazzo del Podestà is in Gothic style.
Theodatus, the second doge of Venice (742-755), moved the ducal seat from Eraclea to Malamocco, where it remained until 812, when it was moved to the Rialto after the exile of doge Obelerius, who returned with the support of Malamocco in 832, but was defeated and the district burnt. During the period of the Republic, Malamocco was one of nine districts of the Dogado. It was ruled by a podestà elected for a sixteen-month term.
References
- ^ A previous version of this article identified Metamaucum as an older name for Malamocco. Some authors do equate the two locations. For example, Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar. Albrecht Berger, 2006. Others (for example Handbook for Travelers in Northern Italy, John Murray, and Francis Palgrave, 1869) suggests that these were separate locations.
- ^ Port of Venice website
- ^ See: "Santa Maria Assunta, Malacocco.