VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice’s San Michele island is the final resting place of American poet Ezra Pound, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and many Venetians known only to their loved ones.
The city of Venice this year revived a long-dormant tradition of constructing a temporary bridge to allow Venetians to make the solemn 400-meter (quarter-mile) lagoon crossing by foot to pay respects to their dead on the Catholic All Souls’ holiday.
In its original form, the crossing was made out of Venetian “peata” boats lashed together, topped with walking planks and anchored to the lagoon bed. The practice was stopped in the 1950s, probably as more regular public water buses made the island easier to reach.
After an absence of some seven decades, the bridge was revived in 2019 with a modular pontoon construction, but the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted plans to make it an annual fixture — until this year.
“We have proposed it once more so we can reconnect history with living people,’’ Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said last week. “It’s a concrete journey. It’s not fake, not philosophical. By foot, over the water, a beautiful route that make you understand a lot of things about Venice.’’
Mourners walk on the ‘Votif’ Bridge, a 407m temporary floating bridge connecting the city to the cemetery on the island of San Michele, to pay respects to their dead on All Soul’s Day, in Venice, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
The lagoon city of Venice is patched together by hundreds of foot bridges. But the city has historically built temporary bridges on just two other occasions, which endure: across the Giudecca Canal for the annual Feast of the Redentore (Redeemer) in late July, and across the Grand Canal for the Nov. 21 Feast of the Madonna della Salute.
The floating walkway to San Michele island near Murano is the longest of the three, traversing a relatively shallow area of the lagoon from the Fondamente Nove. The temporary bridge arches upward to allow water taxis, buses and ambulances and other boat traffic to pass by. Its modern construction allows it to easily withstand high tides of 1 meter (over 3 feet), officials said.
It opened on Thursday in anticipation of All Souls’ Day, when Italians visit cemeteries to pay respects to their loved ones. Only residents were allowed on the 15-meter (50-foot)-wide bridge through the Sunday holiday. It will open to tourists on Monday.
“I usually don’t go to the cemetery for various reasons, but I’m taking advantage of this very rare circumstance, “ Antonio Vespignani said on Thursday. ”It’s a way for me to visit my loved ones.”
Zhang Miao, a Chinese tourist, arrived on the island out of curiosity by ferry on Sunday, but didn’t know it was a cemetery. “To return to the mainland, I used the bridge, which is much more convenient and, what’s more, it’s free,” she said.
The cemetery was established in 1807, after Napoleon decreed that burial be moved away from the city. It took its name from the island’s 15th-century church. It was later expanded, when a canal between a neighboring island was filled in.
San Michele remains the principal burial ground for Venice’s historic center — even as much of the city’s population moves to the mainland.