On March 25, 2021 Venice marked its 1600th birthday, but sadly, it’s during the Covid-19 pandemic where bustling tourists and mass celebrations are at a standstill. However, Coronavirus and quarantine isn’t the first time Venice has witnessed a pandemic.
Quarantine
The term quarantine came from the Italian words, quaranta giorni (or quarantena) – meaning forty days. During the 14th century, as an effort to protect coastal cities from plagues, Venice required quarantine for any ship sailing from an infected port. The ships had to set anchor off the coast for forty days before being allowed to set foot on land.
In the 14th and 15th century, the Venetians spearheaded a system of collecting information and isolating the sick from the healthy, to better control the spread of the plague. A system many governments around the world are using today.
Plague Islands
Lazzaretto Vecchio is a Venetian island in the lagoon that was used to isolate and treat plague stricken people in its hospital. The other island, Lazzaretto Nuovo, was used as a health check station for incoming ships to check its crew for signs of disease.
If disease were present, the sick crew members were transported to Lazzaretto Vecchio.
Mask Wearing
You may have seen the Plague Mask used in film and TV about the plague. Well this long, curved, bird beaked mask is a real thing!
The beak of the mask often held herbs that (no pun intended) masked the scent of plague victims. These were often worn by doctors who would treat plague patients. Not only that, the herbs that were placed in the beak were used as filtration of the “bad air” believed to be the cause of the plague.
As for the famous, elaborately decorated Venetian masks, those were and still are used for Venetian Carnival celebrations. For a short period of time, anyone from any walk of life could mask themselves and become somebody different, but in an anonymous way.
We bought a couple of Carnival masks on our trip to Venice years ago. As touristy as it sounds, I recommend buying one as a souvenir to take home with you.
I miss Venice. I miss Italy in general. We may not have been able to make our trip there in summer of 2020, but I do have hopes to see Italy again in the future (when hopefully the pandemic will be over!)
What are your thoughts on Plague Masks? Do you think they would possibly be efficient in these current times versus cloth masks? Comment below and share this post with your friends!
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