Its historic centre stands on some 118 small islands and has no cars at all
Linked by around 400 bridges over some 150 canals; transport is by boat or on foot
Geography · Cities
Venice
traditionally founded 25 March 421
Italy — on a lagoon at the head of the Adriatic
A city built on more than a hundred small islands in a shallow lagoon, with canals for streets and no cars in its historic centre. For a thousand years it was an independent maritime republic ruled by an elected doge and dominating Mediterranean trade, until Napoleon extinguished it in 1797. Today it is the capital of the Veneto and a city under pressure from flooding, subsidence and mass tourism.
How to spot them
- ▸Built on around 118 islands in a lagoon; its main street is a reversed-S waterway
- ▸Quiz clue: 'La Serenissima', 'the doge', 'the Rialto', 'acqua alta', 'the Bridge of Sighs'
- ▸A basilica with four bronze horses looted from Constantinople in 1204
- ▸Its glass is made on one island of the lagoon, its lace on another
Key facts
For eleven centuries it was a republic ruled by an elected doge and styled 'the Most Serene' (c. 697–1797)
La Serenissima; the last doge, Ludovico Manin, abdicated in 1797 before Napoleon
Each Ascension Day its ruler cast a gold ring into the sea to wed the city to the waters
The Sposalizio del Mare, performed from the state barge, the Bucintoro
Four bronze horses looted from Constantinople in 1204 stand above the door of its basilica (1204)
Taken during the Fourth Crusade, which the city's blind doge Enrico Dandolo diverted
An enclosed bridge carried condemned prisoners from the ducal palace to the gaol, giving them a last look at the lagoon (c. 1600)
The Bridge of Sighs; Byron coined the English name
Its winter tidal flooding has a name of its own, and a system of mobile flood gates was first raised in 2020 (2020)
Acqua alta; the MOSE barriers at the three lagoon inlets
Its film festival, the world's oldest, awards a golden lion (from 1932)
Part of the Biennale; the winged lion is the symbol of St Mark
Quick-fire facts
- •Traditional founding date: 25 March 421, the feast of the Annunciation
- •The Grand Canal winds in a reversed S for about 3.8 km; the Rialto was for centuries its only bridge
- •St Mark's Basilica holds relics said to have been smuggled from Alexandria in a barrel of pork in 828
- •The Campanile of St Mark's collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt 'where it was, as it was'
- •Famous natives include Marco Polo, Antonio Vivaldi, Casanova, Titian, Tintoretto and Canaletto
- •Murano is the glassmaking island, Burano is known for lace and painted houses, Torcello for its ancient cathedral
- •The city's Jewish Ghetto, established in 1516, gave the word 'ghetto' to English
- •Venice and its Lagoon was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987
- •The Arsenale, the republic's state shipyard, could at its peak assemble a galley in a single day
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Venice and its Lagoon
- Thomas F. Madden — Venice: A New History