As Carnival Opens, Venice Honors Native Son Marco Polo on 700th Anniversary of His Death 

A statue representing Marco Polo is on display in a shop window during the pre-opening of the carnival in Venice on January 29, 2024. (AFP)
A statue representing Marco Polo is on display in a shop window during the pre-opening of the carnival in Venice on January 29, 2024. (AFP)
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As Carnival Opens, Venice Honors Native Son Marco Polo on 700th Anniversary of His Death 

A statue representing Marco Polo is on display in a shop window during the pre-opening of the carnival in Venice on January 29, 2024. (AFP)
A statue representing Marco Polo is on display in a shop window during the pre-opening of the carnival in Venice on January 29, 2024. (AFP)

Venice is marking the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo with a year of commemorations, starting with the opening of Carnival season honoring one of the lagoon city’s most illustrious native sons.

Kicking off Carnival last weekend, some 600 rowers in period dress raised their oars in salute and shouted “We are all Marco Polo” as they rowed along the Grand Canal from St. Marks Square to the Rialto Bridge.

Other events planned for the year include a major exhibit at the Palazzo Ducale tracing Marco Polo’s 13th century travels to Asia. He chronicled his discoveries in his famous memoirs that gave Europe one of the best-written accounts of Asia, its culture, geography and people.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the figure of Marco Polo, as an explorer who managed to have dialogue with peoples of other cultures, is particularly relevant today. He said that is especially true for a city like Venice, which from the times it was a maritime republic and a center of trade has prided itself as a bridge between East and West.

In Venice this past weekend, a visitor dressed up as Marco Polo and a masked Carnival character carried a copy of his famous memoirs, “Il Milione,” which was translated into English under the title “The Travels of Marco Polo.”

Marco Polo was born in Venice to a merchant family in 1254 and he died here in 1324 after a quarter-century exploring the Silk Road and serving the Mongol Court.

In Venice, a marble plaque affixed to the side of one of the city’s palazzi reads: “These were the homes of Marco Polo, who travelled to the farthest regions of Asia and described them.”



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.