Torcello Cathedral (Santa Maria Assunta)

Torcello Cathedral, or Santa Maria Assunta, stands on Torcello island in the northern Venetian lagoon, in Italy's Veneto region, reached by vaporetto line 12 from Burano. Torcello was settled from the 5th and 6th centuries by refugees from mainland cities fleeing invasions and by the 10th to 12th centuries had a population in the thousands, with commerce in wool and salt. The cathedral was founded in 639, according to an inscription, and rebuilt in 864 and again in 1008-1012 in the form seen today, a basilica with a nave and two aisles divided by Greek marble columns and no transept. Its most celebrated feature is the mosaics, made by Byzantine-trained craftsmen between the 11th and 12th centuries. The west wall carries a vast Last Judgment, in registers showing the Resurrection, the weighing of souls and the damned, while the apse contains a gold-ground Madonna and Child, known as the Hodegetria, above the Apostles. Floors of inlaid marble in geometric patterns survive, as do carved marble screens, a 6th to 7th-century bishop's throne and a raised presbytery with a crypt. The adjacent church of Santa Fosca, of the 11th to 12th centuries, has a plan of a Greek cross with a portico, and the small Museo di Torcello holds archaeological finds. The Bell Tower can be climbed for a view of the lagoon on days when it is open. As the population of Torcello fell to a handful of residents, the buildings survived, thanks to restoration campaigns over the 19th and 20th centuries and continuing conservation, though flooding and salt remain risks. Ernest Hemingway stayed at the nearby Locanda Cipriani while writing Across the River and into the Trees.