San Michele

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Until the beginning of the 19th century most of Venice's dead were buried in the campi by their parish churches. This practise changed under Napoleonic rule when, in 1807, all burials in the city were banned.

​Henceforth, the walled island of San Michele became the final resting place (albeit temporary) of all dead Venetians of the Roman Catholic faith. A small group of illustrious, and non-Roman Catholic, foreigners are also buried on the island, including Ezra Pound, Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky.

For centuries the island was home to a colony of monks of the Camaldolese Order. Their church of San Michele in Isola, the work of Mauro Codussi, was the first church to be built in Venice (1469) in the Renaissance style.  

Isola di San Michele

San Michele