Legend has it that in 77 A.D. some Phoenician traders, beached on the Mediterranean coast, used some of the "Natron" (soda) blocks stored in the ship to light a fire. Due to the heat, these blocks fused together with the sand of the beach turning into streams of a transparent, but solid material. The discovery of glass, in fact, dates back to an even more remote period than the Phoenician era. In fact, this material was already used by Egyptians, Syrians, Romans, Byzantines and Venetians.
In 1291, to prevent "fire hazards", an order of the Serenissima decreed that all glassworks should be moved to the nearby island of Murano. Here, ancient Roman and Byzantine techniques and innovations in shapes and colours were mixed together to create a mysterious and fascinating effect.
The tradition of the Master Glassmakers has been handed down from father to son to this day, and is still jealously preserved by the Venetian government, which has always protected it. All Murano glass - from murrines to filigrees, from chandeliers to glasses - is the result of work, imagination, discoveries and inventions linked together by a continuous thread that goes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, reaching the present day.