Author: Giulia Abbruzzese

The count-down has started! It's 4 months to the 33rd edition of the Huawei Venicemarathon that will be held on Sunday October 28th. This is not just a simple marathon. The event is also considered a 'meeting point' for thousands of athletes coming from all over the world. It is well known that the city of Venice has always been at a crossroads of people coming both from East and West. Its history dates back to the sixth century and once Venice wasn't just a city in a larger state: it was one of the greatest trading powers in Europe. It was located at the “finish line” of the Silk Road trade route and consequently became a cosmopolitan city, a true melting pot. During the middle ages crusades, Venice was one of the wealthiest towns, and the most overcrowded Mediterranean port. We may say that it was the first multi-cultural town of Europe, where you could easily run into northern European merchants, Slaves, Greeks and Byzantines seamen. The need to affirm its own cultural and religious variety persuaded numerous foreign communities emigrated to Venice to build here their own real and specific place of worship, giving life to an harmonious twist of architectural forms and artistic traditions. Just as a mark of the Venetian melting pot of the time, we still have in Venice some buildings or areas like the Fondaco dei Turchi (warehouse of the Turkish), the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (warehouse of the Germans), the church of San Giorgio dei Greci (the greek-orthodox church), Riva degli Schiavoni (the shore of the Slaves), the Isola di San Giorgio degli Armeni (the island of St George of the Armenians, currently one of the most important centers of armenian culture in the world), the Ghetto ebraico (the Jewish ghetto). We can relive the stages of this history that had seen rise through centuries different religious communities and got developed in