War Memorial of the San Marco Parish, San Moisè, Venice

Venice, Veneto · 1931 · Gastone Iscra

War Memorial of the San Marco Parish, Chiesa di San Moisè, Venice

A soldier’s helmet and a laurel branch carved above two long columns of names — the parish of San Marco’s tribute to its First World War dead, dated twice over in the stone.

At a glance

Set within an arched stone surround on the exterior wall of the Chiesa di San Moisè, the memorial carries a relief of a helmet resting on crossed laurel branches above a Latin dedication and two columns of names. Istrian stone, designed by architect Gastone Iscra. The base is dated “A.D. MCMXXXI.IX” — 1931 by the standard calendar, “IX” marking the same year in the Fascist-era calendar then in official use.

Key facts

Designer: Gastone Iscra, engineer and architect
Material: Istrian stone
Commissioned: the parish committee applied to Venice’s Commission for Ornament on 19 August 1930
Dated: 1931, on the base (“A.D. MCMXXXI.IX”)
Location: the lateral facade of the Chiesa di San Moisè, San Marco, Venice
GPS: 45.43315, 12.33592 · Open in Google Maps

History

In August 1930, the war memorial committee of the San Marco parish — centred on the Chiesa di San Moisè, in the heart of Venice’s busiest sestiere — asked the city’s Commission for Ornament for permission to mount a marble tribute to their fallen on the church’s outer wall. Engineer and architect Gastone Iscra designed it in Istrian stone: an arched niche framing a helmet and laurel relief above the dedication and the roll of names, finished the following year. The double dating on its base, Anno Domini and the ninth year of the Fascist era side by side, is typical of civic and religious monuments raised in Italy at that moment, when both calendars ran in official use together.

Sources

Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Venezia, Grande Guerra memorial survey, Salizada di San Moisè: the August 1930 committee request and Gastone Iscra’s design in Istrian stone
On-site inscription, verified from the contributed photographs: the dedication text and the base date “A.D. MCMXXXI.IX”
Coordinates cross-checked against OpenStreetMap Nominatim for the Chiesa di San Moisè

Photo gallery

Close-up of the Roman-numeral dedication date A.D. MCMXXXI.IX carved on the base of the San Moisè war memorial plaque, Venice — The double-calendar date carved into the memorial’s base. Photo: Stefano Vigolo

Photograph contributed by a Cultural Heritage Online member.

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Record researched and written by Carla Szathvary for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.

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