Biblioteca di San Barnaba

"It looks like a converted church." "In this case it's the literal truth. We're on holy ground."

- Marcus Brody and Elsa Schneider

The Library of San Barnaba is a library near the Canale Grande in Venice, Italy. The library building was originally a medieval church, and contained columns brought back as spoils of war from the sacking of Byzantium during the Crusades. It also contained stained glass windows with images of the knights of the Crusades, and mysterious Roman numerals.

In 1938, Holy Grail historian Henry Jones, Sr. and Elsa Schneider came to the library to help find the tomb of one of the Grail knights, as part of an expedition financed by Walter Donovan. Jones was on the track of discovering the Knight's tomb below the church when he realized that Schneider was a Nazi agent, and sent his Grail Diary to his son for safety. Jones was then kidnapped by Nazi agents and taken to Castle Brunwald.

Donovan then hired Indiana Jones to pick up in his father's place, and Indy and Marcus Brody traveled to Venice, and met Schneider, who took them to the library. She revealed a clue left behind by the senior Jones involving Roman numerals. From reading his father's diary, Indy realized that the tomb was somewhere in the church, and used the Roman numerals to find the spot to enter the catacombs. Breaking through the floor with a cordon post (and puzzling a librarian with the noise), Jones discovered a way into the catacombs. While Jones and Schneider slipped below the library, Brody was ambushed by Kazim and his men from the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who dragged Brody's unconscious body away, and then followed Jones into the underground tombs.

After finding the Knight's tomb and escaping a fire set in the catacombs by Kazim, Indy and Schneider emerged from a manhole in the piazza in front of the library. Kazim's men spied the wet pair and chased them to the docks, where the pursuit continued by motorboat.

A Venetian newspaper covered the damage to the library, and the speedboat chase. Indiana Jones kept a clipping of the article "Ugly American on Rampage" in his journal. The article blamed an unidentified American tourist for smashing the library floor, causing a fire below the library, and leading speedboats on a chase through the docks.

Behind the Scenes
The exterior shots of the library are actually the Church of San Barnaba in Venice, located in the neighborhood of Campo San Barnaba.

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones identifies the library as being the library of San Barnaba in the newspaper clipping, but the map of Venice in the journal identifies the library's location as being near The Jesuits (church) near the Cirdeca Canal, and not at the San Barnaba location. It is liekly that Jones was mistaken when he circled the location of The Jesuits on the map.

Appearances

 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade