Southampton, Hampshire England UK
[Roman Catholic]
By the beginning of the 14th century Venetians were coming to Southampton for trade. An Italian community developed around Bugle street. The men married local women and worshiped in local churches. The Florentines at St. John's, the Genoese at the Friary, and the Venetians at the Chapel of St Nicholas close to St Mary's. The St Nicolas Church, North Stoneham, has a large bluish limestone slab in the floor, saying in medieval Italian, "The burial place of the gild of the Sclavonians." These were men from Dalmatia or modern day Croatia who crewed the Venetian galleys. In 1491 two were robbed and murdered on the way to St Giles Fair in Winchester. It is believed they were buried in the Chapel of St Nicholas, later moved to North Stoneham. The chapel, standing at the east end of St Mary's Church in the cemetery, was described in 1546 as "poor and small".