Inside the Church of San Martino in Burano
It is a given the Venice would be have a few churches given that this is Italy after all. However, I didn’t expect that Venice would have that many churches crammed into such a small island. It numbers at more than a hundred church buildings, active and inactive. I found it very impractical to have that many. Perhaps, the church back then was after more than just the souls of the faithful. Anyway, given how many churches Venice itself has, it is not surprising that Murano and Burano would also have their own churches. We ran into one of the larger churches in Burano. This was the San Martino Church or Chiesa di San Martino.
The Church of San Martino in Burano
The church itself was established more than a thousand years ago, but the current one is “only” four hundred years old. The church exterior is a bit strange since there didn’t seem to be a real facade. It seems that no matter which angle I took, it was always the “wrong” side. Anyway, the church has a single bell tower and it leans. It wasn’t very obvious up close but if you walk a little further, the lean would be quite obvious. Inside, the church doesn’t look anything like four hundred years old. It wasn’t as fancy as the other churches I have been to in Venice and perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. There were two rows of pews facing the simple altar. This church is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. Curiously enough, right beside the church is yet another church. That one is the Oratorio di Santa Barbara or Oratory of Saint Barbara.
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