It must be admitted that a place known as the “Embankment of the Incurables” has not existed here for a long time. However, the toponym has remained in the memory of the townspeople since the 17th century, when there was a hospital on the Zattere embankment where plague victims from all over the city were brought. As a rule, those who could no longer be saved ended up here, which is why this embankment received such a name. The plague of 1630-1631 claimed about one hundred thousand lives, which at that time amounted to more than a third of the city's population.
It is said that on his very first visit to Venice Joseph Brodsky visited this place, and later wrote the famous essay “Embankment of the Incurables”. It was originally written in English and titled “Watermark”, but in Russia it became famous precisely as “Embankment of the Incurables”.
You will not find such a site on the modern city map, but during a walk, at the place where the land meets the Giudecca Canal, you can find the very inscription “Fondamenta degli Incurabili” (Embankment of the Incurables).
In 2009, not far from here, a work by the sculptor Georgy Frangulyan appeared - a memorial plaque with the following text: “Joseph Brodsky - the great Russian poet and Nobel Prize laureate, celebrated the ‘Embankment of the Incurables’”.
