San Giovanni in Bragora: The Font Where Vivaldi Was Baptised
Why is it significant?
Campo Bandiera e Moro is one of those squares that visitors miss by thirty seconds. A brick church with a curved, three-part façade stands on one side, a Gothic palace on another, and children kick a ball against the walls.
Key Facts
| Place | San Giovanni in Bragora: The Font Where Vivaldi Was Baptised |
|---|---|
| Address | Campo Bandiera e Moro, Castello, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.43440, 12.34690 |
| Part of Walk | Vivaldi, Opera and the Phoenix: A Walk Through Musical Venice |
| Generated | Generated |
Campo Bandiera e Moro is one of those squares that visitors miss by thirty seconds. A brick church with a curved, three-part façade stands on one side, a Gothic palace on another, and children kick a ball against the walls. The church is San Giovanni in Bragora, and this is where Antonio Vivaldi's story begins.
Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678, the son of Giovanni Battista, a barber who was also a fine violinist at San Marco. The newborn was so frail that the midwife baptised him at home straight away. Family tradition adds that an earthquake shook Venice that day. Two months later, on 6 May, the full ceremony took place here, at the font you can still see inside.
His father taught him the violin, and the two sometimes played side by side. The boy's hair gave him his famous nickname once he was ordained in 1703: il Prete Rosso, the Red Priest. He suffered from what he called strettezza di petto, a tightness of the chest, probably asthma, and claimed it stopped him from celebrating Mass. It did not stop him from writing operas, touring and conducting.
Before you leave, look for the painting above the high altar: the Baptism of Christ by Cima da Conegliano, from the 1490s, with a luminous hilly landscape behind the figures. Vivaldi would have seen it every time he came back to his parish. The square, meanwhile, honours other sons of the city: the brothers Attilio and Emilio Bandiera and Domenico Moro, patriots executed in Calabria in 1844 after a failed uprising.
The odd name Bragora has puzzled scholars for centuries; nobody is quite sure whether it comes from an old word for a marketplace, for fishing or for something else entirely. Fitting, perhaps, for a composer whose music went missing for two hundred years. Now head north through the quiet backstreets of Castello towards the great Gothic church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo; the last stop is just beyond it, on Barbaria de le Tole.