The Fascinating History of San Giorgio Maggiore Island

EduardoTravel2025-06-286030

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Today, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez will reportedly exchange vows on San Giorgio Maggiore island. Their superyacht, Koru, is rumored to be moored just off the island.

An aerial view of the island, 2019. Fabrizio Villa - Getty Images

Here's what to know about San Giorgio Maggiore island, and the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, the island's famous church:

The history of the island

The island, known as the Isola dei Cipressi or “island of cypresses” is located east of the Giudecca in Venice. Originally owned by a noble Venetian family, it was named for St. George, “of the Italian Military and Civilian Cavalry,” per Ca'Pozzo. To distinguish it from the nearby San Girogio in Alga island, “Maggiore” was added.

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In 982, per Italy's Ministry of Tourism, “the Monastery of San Giorgio was founded there, when the Doge Tribuno Memmo donated the entire island to the Benedictine monk, Giovanni Morosini, who drained the marshes.” In 1223, all the buildings on San Giorgio Maggiore were destroyed in an earthquake, after which the church and monastery were rebuilt several times.

According to the church's history, “With the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797, the Monastery was seriously plundered. However, its importance was still such that in 1800 it was the seat of the Conclave at the end of which Pope Pius VII was elected – born Gregorio Barnaba Chiaramonti, a Benedictine monk from Cassinese Cesena.”

In 1951, the Italian government granted the island to Vittorio Cini, who founded the Giorgio Cini Foundation.

The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore

The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore was built between 1566 and 1610, designed by Andrea Palladio. To this day, the church is one of the most photographed basilicas in Venice, according to Introducing Venice. In 1900, Pope Leo XIII made the church a minor basilica.

Interior of the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. DEA / E. LESSING - Getty Images

Inside the church there is famous artwork on display, including “The Last Supper” and “The Gathering of Manna” (alternatively called “The Jews in the Dessert”) by Tintoretto, and “The Virgin and Child with Saints” by Sebastiano Ricci.

In art

The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore by Claude Monet. Heritage Images - Getty Images

In 1908, Claude Monet painted San Giorgio Maggiore in a series of paintings. Other artists to depict the island include Herbert W. Faulkner, and J.M.W. Turner:

“San Giorgio Maggiore from the Dogana” by JMW Turner, 1819. Print Collector - Getty Images

In literature

A Passage to India (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

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In E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, he writes about San Giorgio Maggiore, as Cyril Fielding arrives in Venice.

“As he landed on the piazzetta a cup of beauty was lifted to his lips, and he drank with a sense of disloyalty. The buildings of Venice, like the mountains of Crete and the fields of Egypt, stood in the right place, whereas in poor India everything was placed wrong. He had forgotten the beauty of form among idol temples and lumpy hills; indeed, without form, how can there be beauty? Form stammered here and there in a mosque, became rigid through nervousness even, but oh these Italian churches! San Giorgio standing on the island which could scarcely have risen from the waves without it, the Salute holding the entrance of a canal which, but for it, would not be the Grand Canal!”