Context
Venice
Gilbert Buti
St Mark's Square, the gondolas, the carnival, the ducats, the doges, Marco Polo, Tintoretto, Guardi, Canaletto, Volpone, Casanova, the Bridge of Sighs: taken all together like that, they are snap-shots from Venice's memory, elements of a world heritage which is far from virtual. In contrast with this international reputation there is the unhealthy climate, the lack of drinking water, the vapours rising off the lagoons and the site's fragility.
Built on stilts, Venice, which actually covers more than 100 islands, is divided into six districts criss-crossed by nearly 200 canals which are in turn crossed by more than 450 bridges.The city owes its name to its first inhabitants, the Venetians, who Caesar authorised to settle on these sandy islands at the mouth of the river Po, in a tidal lagoon. Collecting salt, fishing and cultivating what they could on the thin soil were the first resources of this small city. At the same time by exploiting its geo-strategic position, at the crossroads of the Byzantine, Slav, Ottoman and western worlds, in the Middle Ages it became one of the most powerful and richest cities of its time, controlled by the great patrician families who made up the Senate and provided the Doges. Freed from having to make obeisance to any outside power as from the 11th century, Venice, which dedicated its basilica to St Mark in 1094, dealt with the political powers of the time: it helped Byzantium against the Normans in the 11th century, and the crusaders going to the Holy Land, before re-routing the 4th Crusade against Constantinople for its own profit – taken in 1204 and occupied until 1261 – and building a veritable Mediterranean empire, despite the rivalry of other Italian cities like Genoa. The Venetians were middle-men between the Christian west and the Levant, which then led on into distant Asia. Indeed those roads were taken by the Polo brothers and their son and nephew Marco (end of the 13th century). Venice consolidated its power in the 14th century and in the 15th took possession of several thousand square kilometres of terra firma on the Po plain between Friuli and Lombardy. The state controlled all economic life and all maritime activity, beginning with the arsenal: every Ascension Day the doge was taken out into the Adriatic on board the bucentaure, Venice's state ceremonial barge. There he performed the "marriage of the sea", throwing a ring of blessed gold into the water, symbolising the link between Venice with the maritime world.
The largest trading centre in the Christian west in the 15th century, Venice became the victim of increased competition from the newly formed European states, and in the 16th century, with the opening up of the great ocean routes it lost its monopoly in Asian supplies. In the 18th century Venice remained an important trading centre by building on dry land, while the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte led to the signing of the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) and the aboliton of the Venitian state. A short-lived republic after a revolution in 1848, then it was controlled by the Austrians. In 1866 the Serenissima was given to the Kingdom of Italy and became the new country's main port on the Adriatic, close to the Austrian frontier until the annexation of Trieste after the First World War. The port activities did not disappear but slipped towards the nearby shores for reasons of space (petro-chemicals), drinking water and stable foundations.
The splendor and wealth of its heritage make it one of the most visited international tourist sites (more than 20 million tourists at the beginning of the 21st century). However despite the enormous and costly hydraulic works (the MOSE project or Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) the City of the Doges remains at risk from the consequences of increased maritime traffic, land subsidence, pollution from its industrial plants and global warming, which is causing the water in the lagoon to rise. There is also the depletion of the seabed which worries fishermen, despite their efforts to develop aquaculture. But today Venice is also a leading laboratory in which to study and think about the protection of the coastline and the preservation of natural resources.
Bibliography:
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