Legends about Burano

The Patron Saints of Burano.

In the year 1000 some men of Burano found a floating big marble coffin. It is narrated that it was coming from “Magonza” passing throught the Sant’Erasmo’s harbour. Not even the most strong men of the island can fish out of water this miraculous object: only four children were able to do this, thanks to their cleanness.

The coffin was housing the corpses of St. Albano, St. Domenico and St. Orso and a small wine barrel also named the “Bottazzo di S. Albano”. From that moment on the three memorabilias, in conjunction with Santa Barbara’s one, became the patron saint of Burano.

The retrieval of this coffin aroused the envy of Muranesi (the inhabitants of Murano, the near island) because they thought that it had some “miraculous powers”. So they stole the small wine barrel, but it had not any special effect in their island; today the “bottazzo” is in San Donato’s Church in Murano and it’s impressed upon the stone.

St. Albano's Arm.

Initially St. Albano’s memorabilia was made of gold, but beacuse of the cost of venetian petilence, it was fused and replaced with a copper one which, tarnishing, became brownish and was called “brasso de pègoa” (pitched arm): by this name Murano and Venice’s inhabitants mocked Burano’s ones.

Wise old men of the island have another version of this legend. As a matter of fact it seems that long ago a jeweller went ashore and he proposed to buranelli, wedded to their patron saints, to give him all their own gold to fuse it and create an arm in honor of St. Albano. The inhabitants of Burano willingly accepted this proposal and the work was made. When Summer arrived, from the sculpture began to ooze a dark matter; so the buranelli understood to have been mocked, because the arm was not made fully of gold, but inside of it there was only pitch. In the meanwhile the jeweller was runned away and the buranelli became the laughing stock of the other near islands' inhabitants.

The Legend of Lace.

One of the most famous legends about Burano narrates that an ancient betrothed fisherman, while he was fishing outside the lagoon, in the east sea, hold up to a siren who tried to entice him by her canto. So he received a gift from sirens' queen, enchanted by his faithfulness: the siren thumped the side of the boat by her tall, creating a foam from which a wedding veil developed.

Came back home opportune in the day of marriage, he gave the gift to his fiancée. She was admired and envied from all the young ladies of the island, whereupon they begin to imitate the lace of the wedding veil employing needle-and-thread more and more thin, hoping to create a even more beautiful lace for their wedding dresses.

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