MURANO

Description

Essentials about Murano in brief

Murano is a group of islands in the Venetian Lagoon, located not far northeast of the old city of Venice. Murano has many similarities with Venice: it is car-free, densely built-up and instead of streets there are canals. Next to Venice, Murano is the second most important island in the Venetian Lagoon and is equally popular among tourists. This is mainly due to the centuries-old and world-famous glass art, which is still practiced in Murano today. Anyone who wants to watch glass being made or buy a more or less artistic glass object will find her/his happiness in Murano.

The location of Murano

Murano is located 1.1 kilometers north of the old city of Venice and only about 200 meters from the cemetery island of San Michele. The archipelago consists of seven individual islands separated by eight canals and connected by eleven bridges. With a total area of only about 1.2 square kilometers, Murano is significantly smaller than the old city of Venice. With about 5,000 inhabitants, however, Murano is relatively densely populated.

Glassmaking on Murano

Glass production in Venice or Murano has a very long tradition. After the ancient glass production in the Roman Empire was interrupted by the migration of peoples, it presumably returned to Venice via trade with Byzantium and from there spread further to Central Europe. Venice can thus justifiably be considered the cradle of Central European glass production.

For fire safety reasons, all glass furnaces were moved from Venice to Murano in 1295. Above all, however, this measure served to preserve the closely guarded secret of glass production. The well-paid glassblowers were forbidden to pass on their knowledge under penalty of death.

During the Renaissance, the artistic glass products of the colorless Venetian cristallo became the main source of income for the population. Only little has survived; the variety of shapes and decorations can be seen above all in the depictions on still lifes. Despite all the attempts of the Republic of Venice to keep the technique of glass production and glass refinement secret, at the end of the 16th and in the 17th century some glassblowers succeeded in emigrating to the countries north of the Alps and founding glassworks there.

The Venetian supremacy in glass production was only broken in the 18th century by the success of Baroque cut glass, because the Venetians did not master this technique, which was mainly used in Bohemia and Silesia, but increasingly also elsewhere in Germany.

If you want to see how glass is blown, you should visit one of the many glassblowing workshops in Murano. In many of the factories, you can watch the master glassblowers create their artistic glass objects. Of course, the glass objects can be purchased in the stores of the glassblowing companies and many other specialized glass stores in Murano. And if you can’t get enough of glass objects, you should definitely visit the Murano Glass Museum, where you can see a variety of glasses, bowls, vases and other objects made of Murano glass.

Other sights on Murano

Also worth a visit is the 12th century Basilica di Santi Maria e Donato. It is one of the oldest buildings in the Venetian Lagoon and was once the cathedral of the bishops of Torcello and Murano. The church is known mainly for its colorful mosaic floor.