Museo Di Torcello

Lonely Planet review

Across the square from the cathedral in the 13th-century Palazzo del Consiglio is this museum dedicated to the island. On the ground floor are some sculptural fragments from the cathedral, a 6th-century holy-water font and a curious display of Byzantine objects from Constantinople. Upstairs, among a series of rather dark religious paintings, many from the workshops of Veronese, are all sorts of odds and ends, including a 7th-century lead seal.

The museum's ancient artefacts are held in the Palazzo dell'Archivio, just opposite the Palazzo del Consiglio. They include Roman bronze implements and figurines, some funerary stelae (inscribed, upright stone columns) and statuary, and other bits and pieces. The Roman items were mostly unearthed at the now-vanished Altino.

The rough-hewn stone chair outside is known as the Sedia d'Attila (Attila's Seat). Why is anyone's guess, and even the use to which the seat was put is a mystery. It is surmised that magistrates sat here to pass judgment.