Campo San Barnaba, one of the liveliest little squares in Venice; any movie buff will recognise this as where Indiana Jones emerges from a manhole causing havoc among the unsuspecting tourists sitting around the campo. The church is open but is currently hosting an exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions. Back in the year 1441, a famous wedding took place in this campo, between Lucrezia Contarini and Jacopo Foscari, the son of a much-loved but disgraced doge called Francesco Foscari; their tragic family history was recounted by Byron in verse and later turned into an opera by Verdi called I due Foscari, in which the father was forced to banish his son from the city for a crime he didn’t commit, shortly after which they both died alone.
On a lighter note, if you approach the archway leading out of the campo, above it you will see the Casin dei Nobili, one of the many gambling houses that flourished in the city, despite it being completely illegal. Looking up from the sidewalk to the ceiling, you notice a round hole through which the caretaker looked to check for the arrival of new people or, most likely, law enforcement.
