Venice, St. Mark's Basilica flooded, damage to mosaic floors

The high water that hit record levels in Venice yesterday, reaching 156 cm, also caused damage to St. Mark’s Basilica. In fact, the lagoon city’s main house of worship was flooded by the waters and the mosaic floors were largely inundated: in particular, the marble mosaics of the floor of the narthex were flooded by 90 cm of water. The tide also lapped the bronze doorways and marble columns.

The damage is extensive. “In just one day,” commented Carlo Alberto Tesserin, First Procurator of St. Mark’s, “the Basilica has aged 20 years, and perhaps that is an optimistic consideration. The church has a structure of bricks that when soaked in salt water also deteriorate to a height of several meters, endangering the tightness of the mosaics that adorn the vaults. The fact remains that we were promised, we the Procurators of St. Mark’s, Venice and all humanity, that such events would not happen again.” Only in recent months had the Basilica undergone some restoration work, which had also affected the narthex itself: part of the work now risks being thwarted by high water damage. The Procuratoria of St. Mark’s, Tesserin concluded, can do nothing “to defend St. Mark’s and the entire city in the face of events above 110 centimeters, which have already been over 60 in the last, not yet completed decade. Such defense is possible only by severing the connection between the sea and the lagoon. For us, repairing the damage of frequent flooding, apart from the associated costs, is becoming increasingly difficult and may become impossible, especially in a scenario of global climate change that the scientific world considers certain.”

At the moment there is still no exact estimate of the damage, but a team of technicians from the Ministry of Culture will intervene as soon as possible for the first assessments, prefect Fabio Carapezza Guttuso told Ansa.

Venice, St. Mark's Basilica flooded, damage to mosaic floors

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