Isola di San Michele Island

Address: Isola di San Michele, Venice (between Venice proper and Murano), Veneto, Italy

Hours: Island open during daylight hours; chapel and museum hours vary seasonally

Admission: Entrance to Isola di San Michele cemetery island is free; museum/chapel entries may charge a small fee.

Isola di San Michele is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon serving as Venice’s main cemetery island. The island combines a historic church with extensive burial grounds and funerary monuments.

Visitors come to see the church architecture and the island’s memorials and to walk the tree-lined paths among historic tombs and landscaped plots. The atmosphere is reserved and contemplative, and the island is often visited as a quiet contrast to central Venice.

The island’s church predates the cemetery use, and the site was designated as Venice’s cemetery in the early 19th century, after which it developed the monumental and landscaped burial areas seen today. The island contains tombs and memorials of residents and notable foreigners.

San Michele sits in the lagoon between the main cluster of Venetian islands and Murano; it is served by public vaporetto lines from central Venice.

• Access: Regular public access is by vaporetto from central Venice; the island is a short boat ride and is typically quieter than the city’s main islands.
• Cemetery history: The island has been used as Venice’s principal cemetery since the early 19th century, and it contains numerous historic monuments and graves.

What to See#

• San Michele in Isola church: The island contains the Church of San Michele in Isola, a Renaissance church on the island with a notable façade and cloister that predates the cemetery function.
• Cemetery grounds: The cemetery grounds are laid out across the island and contain historic funerary monuments and landscaped plots used since the early 19th century.

Take ACTV vaporetto Line 4.1 or 4.2 (ferry) toward Isola San Michele; the island is between Venice proper and Murano and is a short ride from Fondamente Nove or San Zaccaria.

• Arrive by vaporetto Line 4.1 or 4.2 (stop: Isola San Michele) to avoid wasting time finding a dock.
• Respect the island's quiet: photography near graves is permitted but be discreet.
• Seek out the graves of famous figures - Sergei Diaghilev, Ezra Pound, Igor Stravinsky - the headstones are small but poignant.