Burano and its humble houses in striking colors!

Burano island

In the northern part of the Venetian lagoon there is an island famous for lace-making and different from the rest of the other lagoon islands. Its outline is marked by its colored houses and by the leaning tower of St. Martin’s church, the only one ever built there in its main square.

The campanile and some houses

Burano has always been a fishermen’s village, where women stayed at home to repair nets while their husbands went fishing.

Houses flanking a typical canal on the island

Local people have always lived in simple houses divided in two floors: on the first floor a big kitchen and on the second one a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. Their facades have been painted with bright and striking colors that sometimes do not match since the 1500s as far as we know.

Striking colours

The reason why local people made the choice to paint them in different colours is very simple. When the fishermen left their homes for work during a foggy day, they could easily find their way back recognizing their bright-colored houses in the mist. There are other versions to this story but according to tradition this is the most credible one.

Find the door on the island

Many artists lived on the island and decorated their own buildings in a very creative way like you see in the above picture. Many of them painted beautiful landscapes of the surrounding lagoon.