San Nicolò al Lido

Founded in the early days of Venice at the most important of the three porti, or sea entrances to the lagoon, the church of San Nicolò, or St Nicholas of Myra, patron of the sailors and protector of the Venetian fleet would be the last church sailors would see before leaving Venice, so they could ask for his blessing at sea.

Beginning in the year 1000, it would also play a major role in the annual ceremony marking La Sensa, where the doge, in his role as bridegroom of the sea, would meet the patriarch for the sposalizio, before tossing his gold ring into the waves (today the mayor of Venice re-enacts the famous ceremony on the the 16th-century bridge on the Riviera San Nicolò).