It is fitting that Doge Pietro II Orseolo was the one to start this great tradition. Orseolo’s rule marked a time of great expansion for the city-state of Venice. By creating peace between competing families within the state, and re-establishing trade with the surrounding Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires, he laid the foundations for Venice to become a superpower in the region. The sea was the central part of Venetian culture and also what made Venice accessible to the trading empires. Venice’s control over the Adriatic, with its fleets of ships, allowed the city-state to put down pirates and combat invading forces during Orseolo’s reign. It also facilitated trade and commerce, covering routes to the Aegean and Black seas, which allowed Venetians to meet the traders who came overland from Central Asia and around the Caspian Sea and so link up with the Silk Road. Venice remained a dominant maritime power well into the seventeenth century, and the city’s great wealth, on which the musical and artistic dominance of the European late Renaissance was built, came directly from this.
By the sixteenth century the ceremony had changed a little. It began at dawn with a simple mass in St Mark’s. Following this the Vera (a simple gold ring) was issued by city officials, and the Doge, accompanied by the most important city ambassadors dressed in their scarlet robes and finery, would board the Bucentoro and be rowed to the centre of the lagoon by four-hundred oarsmen. Whist the party moved across the water the choir of St Mark’s sang motets and the church bells rang out all over the city. Also aboard the Bucentoro was the Piffari – the Doge’s famous ensemble of six trumpeters playing silver trumpets. Fanfares, singing and drumming would have accompanied this procession. The Bucentoro was followed by a parade of thousands of other smaller boats, hired gondolas, and galleys, all decked out in ceremonial bunting made of silk canopies and flags. The Bucentoro would stop near the convent of St Elena, where it was met by another boat, containing the Patriarch of Castello. The Patriarch would board the Bucentoro, bless the Doge with consecrated water, and intone the Oremus. After this the procession would proceed to the mouth of the lagoon, the point at which the Lido naturally opens the waters of Venice to the Adriatic, and the actual ceremony of the casting of the ring would take place. The boats then proceeded to the church of San Nicolò on the island of Lido for an elaborate solemn mass followed by a lavish banquet which lasted until the evening.
The ceremony has changed in meaning over the years. When it began, it was timed to mark the anniversary of the important achievements of Orseolo. In the 1200s the ceremony gradually became more of a spring festival and a marker of the beginning of theatre season. It also changed to take on more religious significance as part of the Festa Della Sensa or Feast of the Ascension, which celebrates Christ’s rebirth in the Christian faith. After the fall of the Venetian republic in 1796 at the hands of Napoleon, the ceremony was dropped for 169 years. In 1965, however, Lo Sposalizio was re-launched to celebrate the city’s heritage and create a spectacle for visitors to Venice. Today, whilst fulfilling this somewhat commercial function, it still carries religious significance as part of the Festa Della Sensa. These days this festival, and its regattas, attracts thousands of spectators every year, offering them an exciting show of nautical folklore and tradition.
As per tradition, the festival of 2018 will begin with the classic water parade, made up of the rowing boats from the Venetian Rowing Society and led by the Bissona Serenissima, with the Mayor and the city authorities on board. From St Mark’s, the procession will reach the Port of St Nicolò, where the rite of the marriage of Venice to the sea will be celebrated, with the symbolic launch of a ring into the water. Once the procession reaches the Lido, the church of St Nicolò will host the ritual religious service and this will be followed by a boisterous market, rich with local food, wine and produce in the adjacent square. As in every year, the Festa della Sensa 2018 will end with various Venetian rowing competitions and other traditional events.
