Sant'Elena: Pines, an Admiral and a Stadium by the Lagoon
Why is it significant?
You are at the far eastern tip of Venice, among umbrella pines, quiet residential streets and a Gothic brick church with a beautifully carved doorway. Behind you is a football stadium; ahead, the lagoon and the long line of the Lido. Few visitors ever walk this far, and that is exactly its charm.
Key Facts
| Place | Sant'Elena: Pines, an Admiral and a Stadium by the Lagoon |
|---|---|
| Address | Campo de la Chiesa di Sant'Elena, Castello, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.42710, 12.36570 |
| Part of Walk | Lions, Shipyards and Saints: Venice's Castello and the Arsenale Beyond the Crowds |
| Generated | Generated |
You are at the far eastern tip of Venice, among umbrella pines, quiet residential streets and a Gothic brick church with a beautifully carved doorway. Behind you is a football stadium; ahead, the lagoon and the long line of the Lido. Few visitors ever walk this far, and that is exactly its charm.
For centuries Sant'Elena was a separate island with a monastery, and its monks claimed to keep the relics of Saint Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, brought, they said, from Constantinople in the thirteenth century. Much of the land you have just crossed is newer: it was reclaimed and built up in the early twentieth century to give the crowded city room to breathe.
Look at the portal of the church. A Venetian commander, Vittore Cappello, kneels before Saint Helena, a monument carved around 1470 and usually attributed to Antonio Rizzo. Cappello fought the Ottomans in the Aegean, and here he is in stone, a sailor praying to the saint who, according to legend, found the True Cross.
Now turn toward the stadium. The Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo opened in 1913 and is one of the oldest football grounds still in use in Italy. Venezia's fans, and the visiting teams, often arrive by boat, and on match days the water around the island fills with supporters in orange, green and black. There is hardly another stadium in Europe quite like it.
And that is the walk: from the doges' flooded crypt at San Zaccaria to Viking runes on a Greek lion, from Venice's forgotten cathedral to the pines at the very end of the city. This is the Venice that Venetians still live in. When your legs are done, the Sant'Elena vaporetto stop is just across the park, ready to carry you back along the water.