‘As it was, where it was…’ The Fall and Rise of the Campanile of San Marco with Sarah Quill

Event date and time: Monday, 20 February, 6.30-8.30pm – SOLD OUT

At the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1 0BE

Tickets: £20 (Friends with website login) and £25 (others) – to include a glass of wine

In July 1902 the famous bell-tower of St Mark, the city’s totemic symbol, collapsed into a pile of rubble, crushing Sansovino’s 16thC LoggeTta beneath it, and narrowly missing the slender columns of the Basilica. News of the disaster flashed by telegram round the world, and the shock and distress felt by Venetians at the sudden loss of their landmark campanile was intense. After an immediate decision by the town council that the Campanile would be rebuilt exactly as it was and where it was, the work of recovery, planning and rebuilding took ten years.

Sarah Quill has worked between Venice and London since the 1970s, building up an extensive photographic archive of Venetian architecture, sculpture and daily life. Her book, Ruskin’s Venice: The Stones Revisited was published in 2000, followed by a new and extended edition in 2015, which has recently been translated into Italian. She lectures regularly, principally on Venetian subjects, and is a trustee of the Venice in Peril Fund.