Chasing Away Evil Spirits

Walking Tours of Venice

Scacciadiavoli (Santa Maria Formosa)

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Surmounting the door to the campanile (bell tower) of Santa Maria Formosa is a stone carving of a grotesque head. It is known as a scacciadavoli (chaser away of devils) and was intended to ward off evil spirits. 

The head horrified John Ruskin (1819-1900): "Leering in bestial degradation, too foul to be either pictured or described, or to be beheld for more than an instant."

​There are other such sciacciadiavoli to be seen above the doorways of Venetian bell towers. 

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Scacciadiavoli (San Bartolomeo)