The Doge annually assisted at
mass in St. Mark's in honor of the victory, but not long afterward the
celebration of it ceased, as did that of a precisely similar defeat of the
Hungarians, who had just descended from Asia into Europe. In 1339 there
were great rejoicings in the Piazza for the peace with Mastino della
Scala, who, beaten by the Republic, ceded his city of Treviso to her.
Doubtless the most splendid of all the occasional festivals was that held
for the Venetian share of the great Christian victory at Lepanto over the
Turks. All orders of the State took part in it; but the most remarkable
feature of the celebration was the roofing of the Merceria, all the way
from St. Mark's to Rialto, with fine blue cloth, studded with golden stars
to represent the firmament, as the shopkeepers imagined it. The pictures
of the famous painters of that day, Titian, Tintoretto, Palma, and the
rest, were exposed under this canopy, at the end near Rialto. Later, the
Venetian victories over the Turks at the Dardanelles were celebrated by a
regatta, in 1658; and Morosini's brilliant reconquest of the Morea, in
1688, was the occasion of other magnificent shows.
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