Venice
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St Mark's Cathedral, Venice, Italy, seen from St Mark's Square, with the Doge's Palace on the right. This 11th-century cathedral is a classic example of Byzantine architecture.
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The Rialto bridge over the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy.
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A gondola on one of the small canal streets in Venice, Italy. These small boats are rowed by the gondolier (standing) using a single oar. During the Renaissance period there were an estimated 15,000 gondolas on the canals of Venice; today there are only about 350.
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Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of the same name in Venice, Italy. It was designed by the 16th-century Renaissance artist Andrea Palladio.
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Grand Canal, Venice, Italy. The ‘main street’ of Venice is lined with Gothic-style palazzi (palaces).
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A winged lion on the Torre dell'Orologio (clock tower), Venice, Italy. The tower was designed by Italian architect Mauro Codussi and built 1496–99. The winged lion represents St Mark, the patron saint of Venice.
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A carnival is held in Venice, Italy, in the days before Lent (the 40 days of fasting observed by the Catholic Church before Easter). Fantastic costumes and masks are part of the festivity, which takes its name from the Latin meaning to ‘remove meat’, since meat was forbidden during Lent.
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The Grand Canal, Venice, Italy, is lined with boats, both traditional gondolas and motorboats. In the distance, seen from the Cathedral of San Marco, is the church of Santa Maria della Salute, fronted by water-steps and crowned with a great dome.
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The façade of the cathedral of San Marco on the east side of St Mark's Square, Venice, Italy. The square is in the heart of Venice, and a centre for tourists. The campanile (bell-tower) and the Doges' Palace are close by, and the Merceria, the chief shopping street of Venice, joins the square on its north side.
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These buildings are built in the Venetian Gothic style, but are in fact in Slovenia. Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region is on the western border of Slovenia, and in the southwest part of its coastline lies along the Gulf of Venice. In Venice itself the Santa Maria dei Frari is a good example of Venetian Gothic architecture, having been rebuilt in the Gothic style during the 15th century.
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The famous skyline of the city of Venice, Italy. Venice is a world-famous tourist destination. Famous attractions include Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), the Doge's Palace, and St Mark's Basilica. However, Venice is at risk from rising sea levels, resulting partly from global warming, and floods are increasingly common.
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Waterways adjacent to the Doge's Palace and Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), Venice, Italy. Venice was built on a series of small islands, in a low-lying lagoon. The preferred method of transport is by boat: the traditional gondola or the vaporetto (water bus).
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St Mark's Square (the Piazza San Marco) is at the centre of Venice. It contains the 11th-century cathedral of St Mark, who is the patron saint of the city. This five-domed Byzantine cathedral is decorated with marble and mosaics, and four Greek bronze horses dating from the 3rd or 4th century. Sculptures of lions, the symbol of St Mark, are to be found in the square and on its buildings.
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Murano, one of the small islands upon which Venice is built. The islands lie within a lagoon, protected from the Adriatic Sea by a line of sandbanks or lidi. In some weather conditions, the water level of the lagoon will mount higher than the usual tidal rise of 1 m/3.3 ft, and flood the city. This picture clearly shows how close to the water's edge the city is built.
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The Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy. It received its name in the 17th century, when it was supposed to have been the route for prisoners on their way to be executed.
City, port, and naval base on the northeast coast of Italy; population (2001 est) 266,200. It is the capital of the Veneto region. The old city is built on piles on low-lying islands in a salt-water lagoon, sheltered from the Adriatic Sea by the Lido and other small strips of land. There are about 150 canals crossed by some 400 bridges. Apart from tourism, industries include glass, jewellery, textiles, and lace.
History
In 1991, archaeologist Ernesto Canal established that the city was founded by the Romans in the 1st century; it was previously thought to have been founded by mainlanders fleeing from the Barbarians in 421. Venice became a wealthy independent trading republic in the 10th century and was also renowned as a centre of early publishing; 15% of all printed books before 1500 were printed in Venice. It was governed by an aristocratic oligarchy, the Council of Ten, and a senate, which appointed the doge (697–1797). By the beginning of the 14th century, the Council of Ten had replaced the general citizenry as an electorate in the election of the doges, and had become restricted to an oligarchy. Making use of a formidable secret police, the great council became increasing powerful while the doge became a figurehead.In 1204 the doge, Enrico Dandolo, led the host of the Fourth Crusade in storming Constantinople. The Crusades did much to develop Venice's trade with the Near East and Asia, and the influence of Byzantium characterized much of Venetian art and architecture, clearly visible in St Mark's Church (rebuilt 1063–73) in the city's main square. During the 15th century the city grew into the most powerful of the Italian states and Europe's leading sea power, trading with the Far East, and distributing its imports throughout western Europe. Colonies and factories were founded in the Morea, the Peleponnese of southern Greece; at Constantinople (modern Istanbul); and in many of the coastal towns of Syria. By the mid-15th century the Venetian Empire stretched to the Alps and included Crete. It also ruled Istria and Dalmatia, Ravenna, and parts of Lombardy and Apulia.
In the latter half of the 15th century Venice's decline began; the chief causes were the Turkish conquest of Constantinople, the discovery of America, the Cape route around Africa, and the rise of the great European powers and their dominance in Italy. Venice helped defeat the Ottoman Empire in the naval Battle of Lepanto (1571) but the republic was overthrown by Napoleon I in 1797. It passed to Austria by the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) and became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
FeaturesVenice is connected to the mainland (4 km/2.5 mi away), and its industrial suburb Mestre, by road and rail viaduct. The Grand Canal divides the city; its chief and most famous bridge is the Rialto Bridge (1588); transport is by traditional gondola or vaporetto (water bus). |
| Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square) contains the 11th-century Byzantine cathedral of S Marco, the 9th–16th-century campanile (rebuilt in 1912 after it collapsed in 1902), and the 14th–15th-century Gothic Doge's Palace, linked to the former state prison by the Bridge of Sighs (c. 1600). The nearby Lido is a bathing resort. The Venetian School of artists includes the Bellinis, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. The Venetian Carnival is held annually at the end of February and the Venice Biennale, an international art exhibition, is held bi-annually Venice's opera house, La Fenice, considered to be one of the city's most beautiful monuments, was destroyed by fire in January 1996 but reopened in 2004. |
ArchitectureThe centre of Venice is Piazza San Marco. The five-domed cathedral of S Marco has marble and mosaics, and four Greek bronze horses dating from the 3rd or 4th century. The loggetta (lodge), adjoining the campanile (bell-tower), is by Jacopo Sansovino. The Torre dell'Orologio (the clock tower), dates from 1496. On the quay south of the cathedral stands a column bearing the 6th-century bronze lion of St Mark. Many churches in the city, including Sta Maria della Salute, Sta Maria Gloriosa, and S Salvatore, are richly decorated and contain outstanding paintings. The Galleria dell'Accademia has a representative collection of works by Venetian painters. |
| In addition to its great school of painters, the contribution of Venice to the arts has been considerable; its masons, mosaicists, and glass-workers have been celebrated for centuries. |
Environment and economyVenice is faced by two major problems. The first is the physical decay of the city: the poor condition of many of its buildings, pollution (which contributes to this deterioration), the erosion of the islands on which it stands, and subsidence. Venice has been increasingly swamped by periodic floods since the 1950s, and a flood in 1966 caused serious damage to historic buildings. The flooding is in part due to the fact that Venice is sinking. In addition, the high phosphorus and nitrogen content of the lagoon has accelerated algae growth, which has destroyed marine life. These issues are being tackled by the Italian government and an international (UNESCO) appeal fund, and since the mid-1980s extensive measures have been taken to prevent flooding and damage to historic buildings. The damming of canals, reinforcement of waterline foundations, and the insertion of lead and plastic damp-proofing courses have been carried out by over two dozen public works companies with multi-billion lira funding. |
| The second cause for concern is the economic decay of the old city due to the dominance of the industrial suburbs of Mestre and Marghera on the mainland. The old city's steadily declining population is dependent mostly on tourism and craft industries. |
Venice
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Flat-bottomed boats, the traditional gondolas, fill one of the canals of Venice, Italy. The old city of Venice is built on three main islands in the Venice Lagoon, and the islands are connected only by the canals. Motor boats and vaporettos have replaced many of the picturesque gondolas, and have increased the pollution of the city.
| Province of northern Italy in eastern Piedmont region; capital Venice; area 2,463 sq km/951 sq mi; population (2000 est) 814,600. |
Venice
| Oceanfront section of Los Angeles, California. It is situated on Santa Monica Bay, immediately south of Santa Monica and 24 km/15 mi west-southwest of Los Angeles city centre. It is noted for its beach and boardwalk, its music and murals. Marina del Rey, to the south, continues the famed Venice Beach, a section of which was once known as the Muscle Beach of body worshipers. |
| Planned and initiated in the 1900s by tobacco magnate Abbott Kinney as an elegant, canal-crossed community, it failed to become the cultural centre he had envisioned. Oil strikes in the 1920s contributed to its decline from middle-class beach resort to drab industrial suburb. In the 1950s, it was a beatnik centre, and since the 1960s it has been a mecca for the young, the artistic, the elderly, and the gay. |
Venice
| Town in Sarasota County, southwest Florida; population (1990) 16,900. It is situated on the Gulf of Mexico, 29 km/18 mi south-southeast of Sarasota. A beachfront resort crossed by canals, it is a popular vacation locale noted for its tarpon fishing. Tourism, shipping of local vegetables, and light manufacturing are vital to its economy. Venice is the winter home of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, and houses the country's only training school for clowns. |
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