Venice- Campo dei mori (the champ of the Moors)

 

 

 

campo dei moriCampo dei Mori

Located in Cannaregio  the  more  extended district from the city Campo dei Mori “is well known by the statues leaning on the walls. The Tradition says that the three brothers Rioba , Sandi and Afani ,  misers and dishonest merchants who had obviously many ” mastelli ” ( bowls ) full of money  adopted the surname Mastelli .

 

antonio rioba
They were coming from the Morea ( the Venetian name to indicate the Peloponnese ), and therefore commonly appealed  ” Mori “, the statues are their images (late thirteenth century sculptures). According to a tradition, among business, there was also practiced the management of a bank, through which a lady was conned.Very religious she prayed to St. Mary Magdalene to hurl his curse on the three merchants. So when the woman loose the money the three brothers Mastelli trough the miraculous prodigy became three stone statues , which were placed in a niche on Campo dei Mori as a  i moriwarning to those who saw them .

As for  statues , visible from the field are actually three, representing the many famous
brothers , although , in the “foundations of the Moors” it is placed the fourth , immediately after the splendid ” sotoportego of the Moors ” and just before the house where lived the famous Tintoretto. ( In the adjacent riverbank of the Moors is the house of the  painter Tintoretto . )

In the night between April 30 and May 1, 2010 the statue of “Sior Rioba” was decapitated vandalismo-veneziaby a vandal ;the head was found in “Calle Racquet”on May 3 and the statue was restored.

The house of the Moors (called the house of the cammel) , in the last great war , hit by a bomb from an Austrian airplane .Collapsing ,buried under its ruins some people. It was poorly rebuilt , but the three statues were put back in their place ”

On these statues jokers used to hang notes and satirical pages .One of them is:

The chronicle of mrs Andrea Rioba 

… i worked with the two brothers ;first escaped from the Morea and then arrived in Venice to find a bit of peace and deal with wholesale in peace. Here around everything was in their possession, including the Ca ‘ Masteli , which always has its own entrance from the mainland. There is just a little problem , the three brothers are in the field and you can see all of them , but no one has ever figured out who is fourth that from the riverbank: is a cousin ? Or is someone that is in debt of money.

 


by  http://dipoco.altervista.org/    cercodiamanti  

visit my website http://ginocosta.altervista.org/