A holiday that has been celebrated since the time of the Republic of Venice, on the occasion of Christ’s Ascension Day (in Venetian dialect ‘sensa’, precisely). At the center of the commemoration stand two events fundamental to the city’s history: on May 9 in the year 1000, Doge Pietro II Orseolo came to the aid of the people of Dalmatia threatened by the Slavs; in the year 1177, under Doge Sebastiano Ziani, Pope Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa stipulated in Venice the peace treaty that ended the centuries-long diatribe between the Papacy and the Empire. On the occasion of this feast the rite of the Marriage of the Sea took place: the Doge on the Bucintoro, his luxurious and unmistakable boat, reached Sant’Elena at the height of San Pietro di Castello. Awaiting him was the bishop aboard a boat with golden shores, ready to bless him. To emphasize the Serenissima’s dominion over the sea, the Feast would culminate with a kind of propitiatory rite: the Doge, upon reaching the Bocca di Porto, would throw a golden ring into the waters, a gesture that is still celebrated today thanks to the activities of the Comitato Festa della Sensa, which since 1965 has reintroduced tourists and Venetians to the magic of a unique ritual.
