Madonna del Monte

Located in the north lagoon between San Giacomo in Paludo and Mazzorbo, this island (also called Monte del Rosario) is one of the smallest and most obscure islands in the lagoon. It 1303 a Benedictine monastery was founded here, but it was so poor that in 1431 its property was ceded to the convent of Santa Caterina on Mazzorbo. In 1712 a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary was built, when the islet acquired its current name, but in the mid 1800s it was demolished for a powder magazine, which is itself now a ruin. The wall around it has crumbled away, and now washed by salty waves the roots of the trees and vegetation that held it together are dying, and every year the islet is shrinking, inch by inch. It may be the first one in the lagoon to disappear altogether.