VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice has all the time been a spot of contrasts, of breathtaking magnificence and devastating fragility, the place historical past, faith, artwork and nature have collided over the centuries to provide an otherworldly gem of a metropolis. However even for a spot that prides itself on its tradition of bizarre encounters, Pope Francis’ go to Sunday stands out.

Francis is touring to Venice to take a look at the Holy See’s pavilion for this 12 months’s Venice Biennale. It’s a primary for a pope, and has given the sixtieth version of the world’s longest working worldwide artwork exhibit cause for one other spherical of headlines.

The Vatican selected to stage its pavilion inside Venice’s girls’s jail, and thru a cope with the Italian Justice Ministry, invited inmates to work alongside the artists. The result’s a multimedia exhibit “With My Eyes,” that’s open to the general public by reservation solely and beneath strict safety circumstances.

Francis will tour the exhibit, meet with the inmates after which tackle Venice’s creative neighborhood at massive contained in the chapel of the jail, which was as soon as a convent for reformed prostitutes.

The Vatican exhibit has turned the convent-prison into one of many must-see sights of this 12 months’s Biennale, an uncommon artwork world darling that greets guests on the entrance with Maurizio Cattelan’s wall mural of two big filthy ft. The work, titled “Father,” remembers Caravaggio’s soiled ft or the ft that Francis washes annually in a Holy Thursday ritual that he routinely performs on prisoners.

After that encounter, Francis heads by boat throughout the Giudecca Canal to Venice’s iconic Santa Maria della Salute basilica to satisfy with younger folks. Then he’s pushed by golf cart over a pontoon bridge laid throughout the Grand Canal for the event to Piazza San Marco, the place he celebrates Mass within the shadow of town’s spectacular Byzantine basilica.

Francis’ dizzying morning go to, which is able to finish earlier than lunchtime, represents an more and more uncommon outing for the 87-year-old pontiff, who has been hobbled by well being and mobility issues which have dominated out any overseas journeys up to now this 12 months.

Nevertheless it’s additionally uncommon as a result of it comes as Venice, sinking beneath rising sea ranges and weighed down by the influence of overtourism, is within the opening days of an experiment to attempt to restrict the kind of day journeys that Francis is enterprise.

Venetian authorities final week launched a pilot program to cost day-trippers 5 euros ($5.35) apiece on peak journey days. The purpose is to encourage them to remain longer or come at off-peak occasions to chop down on crowds and make town extra livable for its dwindling variety of residents.

For Venice’s Catholic patriarch, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the brand new tax program is a worthwhile experiment, a possible essential evil to attempt to protect Venice as a livable metropolis for guests and residents alike.

“Venice needs to be defended as a polis, as a metropolis,” Moraglia mentioned in an interview on the eve of Francis’ go to. “Town dangers not being a metropolis anymore; it dangers being a cultural providing, an open-air museum.”

Moraglia mentioned Francis’ go to was a great addition, particularly for the ladies of the Giudecca jail who’re collaborating within the exhibit as tour guides and as protagonists in among the artworks.

“These are locations of disappointment, of struggling, and for these folks to have somebody of world significance just like the pope come to Venice to see them, is an actual and concrete encouragement,” he mentioned. “And there’s a message additionally to town and to civil society: that those that make a mistake should pay, however they can’t be forgotten.”

Actually, one of many displays within the jail is a neon signal on the inside courtyard, by the creative collective Claire Fontaine, that reads: “Siamo con voi nella notte” (We’re with you at night time).

Moraglia acknowledged that Venice over the centuries has had a protracted, sophisticated, love-hate relationship with the papacy, regardless of its central significance to Christianity.

The relics of St. Mark — the highest aide to St. Peter, the primary pope — are held right here within the basilica, which is among the most vital in all of Christendom. A number of popes have hailed from Venice — previously century alone three pontiffs had been elected after being Venice patriarchs. Venice hosted the final conclave held exterior the Vatican: the 1799-1800 vote that elected Pope Paul VII.

However for hundreds of years earlier than that, relations between the impartial Venetian Republic and the Papal States had been something however cordial as the 2 sides dueled over management of the church. Popes in Rome issued interdicts towards Venice that basically excommunicated your complete territory. Venice flexed its muscular tissues again by expelling total non secular orders, together with Francis’ personal Jesuits.

“It’s a historical past of contrasts as a result of they had been two opponents for thus many centuries,” mentioned Giovanni Maria Vian, a church historian and retired editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano whose household hails from Venice. “The papacy wished to regulate all the pieces, and Venice jealously guarded its independence.”

Moraglia mentioned that troubled historical past is gone and that Venice was welcoming Francis with open arms and gratitude, in line with its historical past as a bridge between cultures, even opposing ones.

“The historical past of Venice, the DNA of Venice — past the language of magnificence and tradition that unifies — there’s this historic character that claims that Venice has all the time been a spot of encounter,” he mentioned.

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Winfield reported from Rome. Related Press author Colleen Barry contributed.