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San Martino (Burano)

With a wonderful wonky tower

Leaning tower of Burano

Burano once required five churches for its religious needs, but now gets by with just this one, built in the 16th century and dedicated to St Martin of Tours. Inside, seek out an early (1725) Crucifixion by Giambattista Tiepolo inspired by Tintoretto's masterpiece in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. Mary McCarthy called it 'a ghastly masquerade ball.'

The church is best known, however, for its tipsily tilting 17th-century campanile, one of the great landmarks of the northern lagoon, standing 53m high and leaning 1.83m off true. The golden angel fell off in a storm in 1867, and it's worn an iron cross ever since.

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Hours 8am-12pm, 3-7pm

Vaporetto Burano

+39 041 730 096

Churches

Towers

Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls

Image by Didier Descouens, Creative Commons License