Gilbert McCarragher
Photographer

Basilica di San Giorgio

Documenting the restoration of San Giorgio was an assignment I could hardly believe I had been asked to complete. The statue, which stands atop the dome of Palladio’s magnificent Basilica di San Giorgio in Venice, had been struck by lightning a decade earlier and its badly damaged arm subsequently removed.

I ascended a complex scaffold erected in the centre of the church. As I neared the 100 foot mark, I clambered out through a small opening in the lantern of the cupola, before climbing more scaffolding on the exterior of the dome where I came face to face with San Giorgio. The first thing I noticed was what big eyes he had, his features having been heavily exaggerated to make them visible from the ground.

I watched over several weeks as the highly skilled restoration team, with funding from the Swarovski Foundation, worked like surgeons to reattach San Giorgio’s arm and spear. Every nail from the statue—labelled and numbered—was driven back into its original hole, until finally San Giorgio was complete again, proudly looking out over Venice.