News & Stories

As a city built on the sea, nearly every structure in Venice experiences persistent problems with rising damp in the walls and the subsequent deposit of salts in the brickwork and on any other decorative surfaces, especially fresco and precious stone. At the church of San Sebastiano, the area around the Garzoni Chapel in the right nave suffers the most from this phenomenon, threatening the permanent deterioration of the 18th-century decorative marble elements in the chapel.

Conservators are now working to rescue the salt-damaged marble pieces of the chapel by putting them through a desalination process, the same procedure that was used to save the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli during Save Venice’s conservation campaign in the 1990s.

Each decorative element in marble is carefully removed from the wall and meticulously analyzed and documented before being emerged in a tank of deionized water. Over the course of several weeks, the salt deposits migrate out of the marble and into the fresh water. Conservators then monitor the saline content of the water to measure the progress of the process, replacing the water approximately every ten days, until the presence of salt is no longer detectable. While the desalination treatment of the marble is underway, conservators continue to repair and replace damaged brickwork and restore the ornate 18th-century stuccowork and sculptures. The restoration of the Garzoni Chapel was made possible by the Boston Chapter of Save Venice.

Scaffolding will soon be removed from the three chapels across the nave from the Garzoni chapel, as work on that side of the church has been completed. Stay tuned for more!