Ah, Venice...

Professor Jones

New member
I am from Venice, and maybe I can help, althought I must say it's really difficult to identify the exact spots where the scenes where shot.

1. Indy arrives with the boat. The scene is probably shot near the Church of the Madonna della Salute, or near "La Punta della Dogana". Both buildings are located on the extreme tip of the side of the bay of Canal Grande opposite to San Marco's Square. They're a little south of San Marco.

2. Indy steals the flower. They're probably on Fondamenta Gerardini, the street from which you reach Campo San Barnaba. The bridge Indy crosses is called "Ponte dei Pugni" (Bridge of Fists). It is called like that because there are the printing of four footsteps on it. In old times venecian people use to engage combat tournement there: they shoud put the back foot on the print and fight. The first that moved from the footstep-print lost the fight and was threw in the canal! Very funny. Once there was a bar under the bridge called "Bar ai Pugni". Now it has closed. The green tent you see behind Indy when he arrives in San Barnaba is the tent of a boat that sells fruit and garbage. It's still there...

3. The library. It is the San Barnaba Church, in campo San Barnaba. Now it's closed, you cannot see it inside. Anyway a few years ago it opened and it's interiors are very different from the library we see in the movie: the Church is actually very dark and very little. No libraries nor windows are there, nor cathacombs under it. A curiosity: there are no manholes in front of the Church, so I wonder how they could have created it! The bar actually exists.

4. The boat pursuit is rolled in Englad, not in Venice. Even the part in which Indy jumps on the boat seems to be a fake set. I cannot recognize any part of Venice in it.

5. The scene in which Indy brings the Brother of the Cruciform Sword, Kazim, to the dock is shot on Canal Grande, after the Ponte dell'Accademia (it's the wooden bridge you see on the background). The Church before the bridge is the Madonna della Salute Church, on Canal Grande (see n. 1). Anyway some frame seems to me the part of Giudecca.

6. The apartment. I cannot recognize in which part of venice is shot. Maybe it's just a studio set.

It would be very complicate to explain how to reach all these places.. you can use that site to find the directions to reach them: www.viamichelin.com

Finally I really cannot understand what canal is the one in which pass the gondola with the gondoliere singing as Indy kisses Elsa... Venice canals are all the same! Ah, Venice!
 

Professor Jones

New member
Professor Jones said:
I am from Venice, and maybe I can help, althought I must say it's really difficult to identify the exact spots where the scenes where shot.

Ok guys, I've done some "live" research in the mighty town on the water and I've discovered some more precise details.

1. Indy arrives with the boat. The scene is probably shot near the Church of the Madonna della Salute, or near "La Punta della Dogana". Both buildings are located on the extreme tip of the side of the bay of Canal Grande opposite to San Marco's Square. They're a little south of San Marco.

I confirm: the scene is definitively shot in front of the Church of the Madonna della Salute (most commonly known as "La Salute"). Near is the building of the "Dogana" (the border that once delimited the lagoon waters of property of the Venice Republic). You can see the Church behind Indy when he meets Elsa and the Dogana building behind Elsa's Back. The dock at which the public transport boat drops off Indy and Marcus was probably built for the movie, because today there is no more a boat stop there. The actual boat-stop dock is a few meters before and it's got a gray and yellow cabin.

2. Indy steals the flower. They're probably on Fondamenta Gerardini, the street from which you reach Campo San Barnaba. The bridge Indy crosses is called "Ponte dei Pugni" (Bridge of Fists). It is called like that because there are the printing of four footsteps on it. In old times venecian people use to engage combat tournement there: they shoud put the back foot on the print and fight. The first that moved from the footstep-print lost the fight and was threw in the canal! Very funny. Once there was a bar under the bridge called "Bar ai Pugni". Now it has closed. The green tent you see behind Indy when he arrives in San Barnaba is the tent of a boat that sells fruit and garbage. It's still there...

3. The library. It is the San Barnaba Church, in campo San Barnaba. Now it's closed, you cannot see it inside. Anyway a few years ago it opened and it's interiors are very different from the library we see in the movie: the Church is actually very dark and very little. No libraries nor windows are there, nor cathacombs under it. A curiosity: there are no manholes in front of the Church, so I wonder how they could have created it! The bar actually exists.

I confirm. That was easy! ;) I add that today the church is used for a Leonardo da Vinci exposition. So it is opened to the public but you should pay an entrance because of the exposition.

Behind Indy, when he comes off the sewer cap, you can see a sign on the shop after him:it says "DRAGO F.lli". That means "Drago Bros." and it was actually the name of a book-shop. That sign stood there for years, today there is no more, and I don't know if the shop it's still opened.


4. The boat pursuit is rolled in Englad, not in Venice. Even the part in which Indy jumps on the boat seems to be a fake set. I cannot recognize any part of Venice in it.

5. The scene in which Indy brings the Brother of the Cruciform Sword, Kazim, to the dock is shot on Canal Grande, after the Ponte dell'Accademia (it's the wooden bridge you see on the background). The Church before the bridge is the Madonna della Salute Church, on Canal Grande (see n. 1). Anyway some frame seems to me the part of Giudecca.

Here I've discovered something new: from the moment in which Indy jumps on the boat chased by the arabsman till the giant-propeller/fight-with-Kazim scene I can assure you they've not shot in Venice. I can easily recognize that the two buildings on the background when Indy take the boat are fake. They'r just two buildings camoufled to resemble venician houses, but I can assure you that is not venice-style.

The whole chase is actually shot in England, but the last sequence (from when Indy recovers Kazim on Elsa's boat and they reach the dock together) is shot in Venice.
A) The first part, in which you see a bridge on the background, is shot on a canal that borders the Molino Stucky Palace, that's a palace that is now used as a Hilton Hotel, and it was destroyed by a great fire in the nineties and then rebuilted just as it was once.
You can see this characteristic building (easily recognizeable by his red bricks and his pair of windows in rows) when Indy's boat make a turn on the canal. The bridge you see on the background has now been modified and it's more modern.
The church you can notice after Indy's boat turns is the Church of Redentore.
B) The second part of the last sequence (Indy drops off Kazim on a dock) is shot on Canal Grande, after the Accademia's bridge (coming from the railway station). That is for sure since after Indy you can see (once again) on the background the same church you can see in the arrival-scene, the SALUTE.

6. The apartment. I cannot recognize in which part of venice is shot. Maybe it's just a studio set.

Finally I really cannot understand what canal is the one in which pass the gondola with the gondoliere singing as Indy kisses Elsa... Venice canals are all the same! Ah, Venice!

That would be difficult, but maybe I'll discover it!!! :D
 

No Ticket

New member
Google Earth is quite possibly the coolest program ever invented...



Step 1 - Search "Venice"

indy1.jpg




Step 2 - Zoom In on City

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Step 3 - Click on "Last Crusade Indiana Jones Library"

indy3.jpg






.... sooo cool. :cool:
 

Ste2652

Member
I walked past the church yesterday. It's ?6 (about $8/£4) to go in and, as a previous poster has said, it's quite dark and it's basically a traditional church with a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition inside.

The approach across the square to the Church also looks bigger in the movie (in my opinion, anyway). I couldn't find the grate that Indy came out of but there were two square manholes... presumably it has been resurfaced/redesigned since The Last Crusade was shot (which is almost twenty years ago!).

It also looks cleaner than in TLC - the outside has been given a good scrub :p

If you happen to visit Venice, it's worth a visit if you get the chance.
 

Indy_Chic

New member
Wow! This is very interesting. I am currently saving my $ for a trip to Venice, hopefully in the next year or two. I hope you enjoy your trip Indy4ever! Remember to take lots of photo's! ;)
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
"This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty - this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism."

~Thomas Mann

Venice is one of my favourite cities on the planet. If I had my druthers (and the money), I'd move in a heartbeat. Granted, it only has one theatre (two screens), but everything else makes up for it.

Once you exit the train station, the first site you're witness to: Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo.

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Where most tourists head to: Piazza San Marco. This is the piazza a week before Carnevale. The Campanile di San Marco is just over a century old; reconstructed in 1902, it is squatter than the previous incarnation built in the 10th Century. Basilica San Marco is in the background.


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In a city where everything moves in and out on the water, the Grand Canal is the main drag -- Broadway, La Rambla, or Champs-Élysées. Just after dawn, the Grand Canal is practically empty of traffic.

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In another couple of hours, the city will begin to stir; tourists will rise, and the Venetians with them. It's a great time to take a stroll.

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If you'd like to see a few more, feel free to point your browser this way.
 
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Stoo

Well-known member
Saboteur, when did you go? Were you able to spot any "Crusade" or Young Indy locations? The photo on your page with the empty canal under restoration is very interesting. (My girlfriend & I have been talking about driving or flying down for a weekend so I may be there soon.(y))
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
IMG_9455.JPG


You're probably used to something like the above, no? Images like that are precisely why I don't travel to Venezia during the high season -- I visit almost exclusively during the Winter. Granted, you don't have the lovely weather that people come for, but I personally prefer the fog and the mist. It adds an entire layer to the city's mystique.

In my five visits, however, there are two times of day to stroll if you actually want to "see" Venice: in the early morning hours, and the late evening. Of course, if you're stuck in the Piazza San Marco to Accademia corridor, you'll never really see anything anyway.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Stoo said:
Saboteur, when did you go? Were you able to spot any "Crusade" or Young Indy locations? The photo on your page with the empty canal under restoration is very interesting. (My girlfriend & I have been talking about driving or flying down for a weekend so I may be there soon.(y))

This last trip was in January '08. I'll be in Spain next year for Fiesta San Isidro and San Fermin, and will probably stop off in Venezia again to see some friends. If you're looking for a really reasonably priced place to stay, let me know!

Oh, and take the train; don't bother flying or driving.


This photo?

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I'm gradually working on updating all the snaps with a bit of trivia, so feel free to check back from time to time. I'll also be adding other snaps from around here and other places.

Anyway, that canal is somewhere in the vicinity of Rio Tera degli Assassnini. It seems that every three years or so, each and every canal is drained, and the building foundations and infrastructure examined. If necessary, everything is repaired and the seawall removed. It's also interesting to note just how shallow most of the canals actually are!


About Indy: My point of reference for Venice has always been Corto Maltese! (Click here for something cool!) So it always takes me a minute or two to separate the locations. But, yes, I was able to spot several locations from "Crusade" -- where Indy & Elsa first meet, for example, is very near to my friend's apartment! I also passed through the Campo San Barnaba many times.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
The bulk of my pictures are on a different computer, but I wanted to share this bit of history with my fellow Ravenites. Full disclosure: neither this picture nor the print are actually 'mine'. Once I get everything together, I may post mine here.

desdemonas.jpg


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On the opposite side of Grand Canal from the Chiesa della Salute is a slender palazzo lavishly decorated with Moorish-style windows and circle cut balconies. It's name: Palazzo Contarnini-Fasan. The addition of "Fasan" comes from the owner's passion for pheasant hunting.

This palazzo is better known as Desdemona's house, Desdemona being the unfortunate wife of Othello, the jealous general from Cyprus. Shakespeare drew inspiration for his plot in 'The Merchant of Venice,' from the novel Moro di Venezia by G.B. Cinzio, a writer of tragedies from Ferrara, who died in 1573. The novel is based on the exploits of a noble Venetian, one Nicola Contarini, the hero who defended the Venetian boundaries from Turkish attacks. He was said to have been dark skinned (due to trade exchanges with the Orient, Moorish blood flowed in many a Venetian's veins), and until the early 1900s, one of his descendant's skin was still quite dark. The ending to Nicola Contarini's real story, however, was quite difference from the one imagined by the great English writer: Contarini was killed after his wife, seeking shelter from her husband's inordinate jealousy, had fled back to her family. The house of the jealous Othello is on Campo dei Carmini.
 

AnythingGoes

New member
Ste2652 said:
I walked past the church yesterday. It's ?6 (about $8/£4) to go in and, as a previous poster has said, it's quite dark and it's basically a traditional church with a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition inside.

The approach across the square to the Church also looks bigger in the movie (in my opinion, anyway). I couldn't find the grate that Indy came out of but there were two square manholes... presumably it has been resurfaced/redesigned since The Last Crusade was shot (which is almost twenty years ago!).

It also looks cleaner than in TLC - the outside has been given a good scrub :p

If you happen to visit Venice, it's worth a visit if you get the chance.
Very interesting! My friends and I are going to Venice next year...I'll try to get them to go to the Library with me!
:whip:
 
Just a heads up, you can copy the code from your pictures in facebook and paste them here so we don't have to go off site to see your pics...:hat:
 

Goodeknight

New member
Fantastic. With the suit, it's the perfect low-key "costume" that doesn't seem like a costume. Love it.

How did you manage the pics with the stained glass from the movie? Green screen/Photoshop?
 
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