Venice

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Transportation

In the historic centre

Venice is built on an archipelago of 118 islands in a shallow 550 km2 (212 sq mi) lagoon connected by 400 bridges over 177 canals. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought the railroad to Venice. The adjoining Ponte della Libertà road causeway and terminal parking facilities in Tronchetto island and Piazzale Roma were built during the 20th century. Beyond these rail and road terminals on the northern edge of the city transportation within the city's historic centre remains as it was in centuries past entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe's largest urban car-free area and is unique in Europe in having remained a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.

The classic Venetian boat is the gondola (plural: gondole) although it is now mostly used for tourists or for weddings funerals or other ceremonies or as traghetti (sing.: traghetto) to cross the Grand Canal in lieu of a nearby bridge. The traghetti are operated by two oarsmen. For some years there were seven such boats; but by 2017 only three remained.[citation needed]

There are approximately 400 licensed gondoliers in Venice in their distinctive livery and a similar number of boats down from 10 000 two centuries ago. Many gondolas are lushly appointed with crushed velvet seats and Persian rugs. At the front of each gondola that works in the city there is a large piece of metal called the fèro (iron). Its shape has evolved through the centuries as documented in many well-known paintings. Its form topped by a likeness of the Doge's hat became gradually standardized and was then fixed by local law. It consists of six bars pointing forward representing the sestieri of the city and one that points backwards representing the Giudecca. A lesser-known boat is the smaller simpler but similar sandolo.


Waterways

Venice's small islands were enhanced during the Middle Ages by the dredging of soil to raise the marshy ground above the tides. The resulting canals encouraged the flourishing of a nautical culture which proved central to the economy of the city. Today those canals still provide the means for transport of goods and people within the city.

The maze of canals threading through the city requires more than 400 bridges to permit the flow of foot traffic. In 2011 the city opened the Ponte della Costituzione the fourth bridge across the Grand Canal which connects the Piazzale Roma bus-terminal area with the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station. The other bridges are the original Ponte di Rialto the Ponte dell'Accademia and the Ponte degli Scalzi.


Public transport

Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano (ACTV) is a public company responsible for public transportation in Venice.


Lagoon area

The main means of public transportation consists of motorised waterbuses (vaporetti) which ply regular routes along the Grand Canal and between the city's islands. Private motorised water taxis are also active. The only gondole still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points where there are no convenient bridges. Other gondole are rented by tourists on an hourly basis.

The Venice People Mover is an elevated shuttle train public transit system connecting Tronchetto island with its car parking facility with Piazzale Roma where visitors arrive in the city by bus taxi or automobile. The train makes a stop at the Marittima cruise terminal at the Port of Venice.


Lido and Pellestrina islands

Lido and Pellestrina are two islands forming a barrier between the southern Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. On those islands road traffic including bus service is allowed. Vaporetti link them with other islands (Venice Murano Burano) and with the peninsula of Cavallino-Treporti.


Mainland

The mainland of Venice is composed of 5 boroughs: Mestre-Carpenedo Marghera Chirignago-Zelarino and Favaro Veneto. Mestre is the center and the most populous urban area of the mainland. There are several bus routes and two Translohr tramway lines. Several bus routes and one of the tramway lines link the mainland with Piazzale Roma the main bus station in Venice via Ponte della Libertà the road bridge connecting the mainland with the group of islands that comprise the historic center of Venice.

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Venice for example to and from work on a weekday is 52 min. Only 12.2% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 10 min while 17.6% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) while 12% travel for over 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) in a single direction.


Rail

Venice is serviced by regional and national trains including trains to Florence (1h53) Milan (2h13) Turin (3h10) Rome (3h33) and Naples (4h50). In addition there are international day trains to Zurich Innsbruck Munich and Vienna plus overnight sleeper services to Paris and Dijon on Thello trains and to Munich and Vienna via ÖBB.

The Venezia Santa Lucia railway station is a few steps away from a vaporetti stop in the historic city next to the Piazzale Roma. As well as for other local trains this station is the terminus of the luxury Venice Simplon Orient Express from London via Paris and other cities.
The Venezia Mestre railway station is on the mainland on the border between the boroughs of Mestre and Marghera.
Both stations are managed by Grandi Stazioni; they are linked by the Ponte della Libertà (Liberty Bridge) between the mainland and the city center.

Other stations in the municipality are Venezia Porto Marghera Venezia Carpenedo Venezia Mestre Ospedale and Venezia Mestre Porta Ovest.


Ports

The Port of Venice (Italian: Porto di Venezia) is the eighth-busiest commercial port in Italy and is a major hub for the cruise sector in the Mediterranean. It is one of the major Italian ports and is included in the list of the leading European ports which are located on the strategic nodes of trans-European networks. In 2002 the port handled 262 337 containers. In 2006 30 936 931 tonnes passed through the port of which 14 541 961 was commercial traffic and saw 1 453 513 passengers.

The port of Venice hosted different nationalities that attracted all ethnicities from all over the world. Venice and its port became the trade hub of the world. One notable ethnic group that found great success in Venice was the Armenians.
The Armenians being famous merchants benefited and preferred to trade with Venice for most of its goods. Armenian trade networks stretched from Phillippines all the way to the Netherlands and in between there was Venice which was tolerant to all ethnicities from all around the world.
The Armenians were selling their goods since the 12th century. However after the Armenians gained a monopoly over Iranian silk in the 16th century and when the Venetians gave the Armenians tariff exemptions over Iranian silk the volume of trade between Armenians and Venice increased tremendously and Armenians started forming their own settlements near the port city.
Venice became one of the most important Armenian trade information and cultural network and it even hosts the oldest Armenian printing.
To this day Armenians inhabit their own island named San Lazzaro Degli Armeni which hosts libraries museums and monasteries.


Aviation

The Marco Polo International Airport (Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo) is named in honor of Marco Polo. The airport is on the mainland and was rebuilt away from the coast. Public transport from the airport takes one to:

Venice Piazzale Roma by ATVO (provincial company) buses and by ACTV (city company) buses (route 5 aerobus);
Venice Lido and Murano by Alilaguna (private company) motor boats;
Mestre the mainland where Venice Mestre railway station is convenient for connections to Milan Padova Trieste Verona and the rest of Italy and for ACTV (routes 15 and 45) and ATVO buses and other transport;
Regional destinations such as Treviso and Padua by ATVO and Busitalia Sita Nord buses.
Venice-Treviso Airport about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Venice is used mainly by low-cost airlines. There are public buses from this airport to Venice.[citation needed]

Venezia-Lido "Giovanni Nicelli" a public airport suitable for smaller aircraft is at the northeast end of Lido di Venezia. It has a 994 meter grass runway.

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1000	60 000	—
1200	80 000	+33.3%
1300	180 000	+125.0%
1400	110 000	−38.9%
1423	150 000	+36.4%
1500	100 000	−33.3%
1560	170 000	+70.0%
1600	200 000	+17.6%
1700	140 000	−30.0%
1800	140 000	+0.0%

The city was one of the largest in Europe in the High Middle Ages with a population of 60 000 in AD 1000; 80 000 in 1200; and rising up to 110 000–180 000 in 1300. In the mid 1500s the city's population was 170 000 and by 1600 almost 200 000.

In 2009 there were 270 098 people residing in the Comune of Venice (the population estimate of 272 000 inhabitants includes around 60 000 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico) 176 000 in Terraferma (the mainland); and 31 000 on other islands in the lagoon); 47.4% were male and 52.6% were female. Minors (ages 18 and younger) were 14.36% of the population compared to pensioners who numbered 25.7%. This compared with the Italian average of 18.06% and 19.94% respectively. The average age of Venice residents was 46 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007 the population of Venice declined by 0.2% while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85%. The population in the historic old city declined much faster: from about 120 000 in 1980 to about 60 000 in 2009 and to below 55 000 in 2016.

As of 2018[update] 86% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant groups include: 5 934 (2.3%) Bangladeshis 5 578 (2.1%) Romanians 4 460 (1.7%) Moldovans 3 351 (1.3%) Chinese and 2 511 (1%) Ukrainians.

Venice is predominantly Roman Catholic (85.0% of the resident population in the area of the Patriarchate of Venice in 2018 ) but because of the long-standing relationship with Constantinople there is also a noticeable Orthodox presence; and as a result of immigration there is now a large Muslim community (about 25 000 or 9.5% of city population in 2018 ) and some Hindu and Buddhist inhabitants.

Since 1991 the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice has become the see of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta and Exarchate of Southern Europe a Byzantine-rite diocese under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

There is also a historic Jewish community in Venice. The Venetian Ghetto was the area in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. The word ghetto originally Venetian is now found in many languages. Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice written in the late 16th century features Shylock a Venetian Jew. The first complete and uncensored printed edition of the Talmud was printed in Venice by Daniel Bomberg in 1523. During World War II Jews were rounded up in Venice and deported to extermination camps. Since the end of the war the Jewish population of Venice has declined from 1500 to about 500. Only around 30 Jews live in the former ghetto which houses the city's major Jewish institutions. In modern times Venice has an eruv used by the Jewish community.

Government

Local and regional government

See also: Mayor of Venice

The legislative body of the Comune is the City Council (Consiglio Comunale) which is composed of 36 councillors elected every five years with a proportional system contextually to the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Administration (Giunta Comunale) composed of 12 assessors nominated and presided over by a directly elected Mayor.

Venice was governed by centre-left parties from the early 1990s until the 2010s when the Mayor started to be elected directly. Its region Veneto has long been a conservative stronghold with the coalition between the regionalist Lega Nord and the centre-right Forza Italia winning absolute majorities of the electorate in many elections at local national and regional levels.

The current Mayor of Venice is Luigi Brugnaro a centre-right independent businessman who is currently serving his second term in office.

The municipality of Venice is also subdivided into six administrative boroughs (municipalità). Each borough is governed by a council (Consiglio) and a president elected every five years. The urban organization is dictated by Article 114 of the Italian Constitution. The boroughs have the power to advise the Mayor with nonbinding opinions on a large spectrum of topics (environment construction public health local markets) and exercise the functions delegated to them by the City Council; in addition they are supplied with autonomous funding to finance local activities.

The boroughs are:

Borough		Population	President	Party		Term
Lagoon area
1	Venezia (Historic city)–Murano–Burano	69 136	Marco Borghi		PD	2020–2025
2	Lido–Pellestrina	21 664	Emilio Guberti		Ind	2020–2025
Mainland (terraferma)[a]
3	Favaro Veneto	23 615	Marco Bellato		Ind	2020–2025
4	Mestre–Carpenedo	88 592	Raffaele Pasqualetto		LN	2020–2025
5	Chirignago–Zelarino	38 179	Francesco Tagliapietra		Ind	2020–2025
6	Marghera	28 466	Teodoro Marolo		Ind	2020–2025

Notes


Sestieri

The Historic city of Venice is divided into six areas called sestieri:

Sestiere
	Cannaregio
	San Polo
	Dorsoduro (including Giudecca and Sacca Fisola)
	Santa Croce
	San Marco (including San Giorgio Maggiore)
	Castello (including San Pietro di Castello San Michele and Sant'Elena)

Now each sestiere is a statistical and historical area without any degree of autonomy.

The six fingers or phalanges of the ferro on the bow of a gondola represent the six sestieri.

The sestieri are divided into parishes – initially 70 in 1033 but reduced under Napoleon and now numbering just 38. These parishes predate the sestieri which were created in about 1170. Each parish exhibited unique characteristics but also belonged to an integrated network. Each community chose its own patron saint staged its own festivals congregated around its own market center constructed its own bell towers and developed its own customs.

Other islands of the Venetian Lagoon do not form part of any of the sestieri having historically enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy.

Each sestiere has its own house numbering system. Each house has a unique number in the district from one to several thousand generally numbered from one corner of the area to another but not usually in a readily understandable manner.

Culture

Literature

Main article: Venetian literature

Venice has long been a source of inspiration for authors playwrights and poets and at the forefront of the technological development of printing and publishing.

Two of the most noted Venetian writers were Marco Polo in the Middle Ages and later Giacomo Casanova. Polo (1254–1324) was a merchant who voyaged to the Orient. His series of books co-written with Rustichello da Pisa and titled Il Milione provided important knowledge of the lands east of Europe from the Middle East to China Japan and Russia. Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) was a prolific writer and adventurer best remembered for his autobiography Histoire De Ma Vie (Story of My Life) which links his colourful lifestyle to the city of Venice.

Venetian playwrights followed the old Italian theatre tradition of Commedia dell'arte. Ruzante (1502–1542) Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) used the Venetian dialect extensively in their comedies.

Venice has also inspired writers from abroad. Shakespeare set Othello and The Merchant of Venice in the city as did Thomas Mann his novel Death in Venice (1912). The French writer Philippe Sollers spent most of his life in Venice and published A Dictionary For Lovers of Venice in 2004.

The city features prominently in Henry James's The Aspern Papers and The Wings of the Dove. It is also visited in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Perhaps the best-known children's book set in Venice is The Thief Lord written by the German author Cornelia Funke.

The poet Ugo Foscolo (1778–1827) born in Zante an island that at the time belonged to the Republic of Venice was also a revolutionary who wanted to see a free republic established in Venice following its fall to Napoleon.

Venice also inspired the poetry of Ezra Pound who wrote his first literary work in the city. Pound died in 1972 and his remains are buried in Venice's cemetery island of San Michele.

Venice is also linked to the technological aspects of writing. The city was the location of one of Italy's earliest printing presses called Aldine Press established by Aldus Manutius in 1494. From this beginning Venice developed as an important typographic center. Around fifteen percent of all printing of the fifteenth century came from Venice and even as late as the 18th century was responsible for printing half of Italy's published books.[citation needed]


In literature and adapted works

The city is a particularly popular setting for essays novels and other works of fictional or non-fictional literature. Examples of these include:

Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (c. 1596–1598) and Othello (1603).
Ben Jonson's Volpone (1605–6).
Casanova's autobiographical History of My Life c. 1789–1797.
Voltaire's Candide (1759).
Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972).
Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven (1982).
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti crime fiction series and cookbook and the German television series based on the novels (1992–2019).
Philippe Sollers' Watteau in Venice (1994).
Michael Dibdin's Dead Lagoon (1994) one in a series of novels featuring Venice-born policeman Aurelio Zen.
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Chosen (2002) an historical fantasy or alternate history of Venice—complete with masquerades canals and a doge—taking place in a city known as La Serenissima.
John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels (2005)
Additionally Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice (1912) was the basis for Benjamin Britten's eponymous opera (1973).


Foreign words of Venetian origin

Some words with a Venetian etymology include arsenal ciao ghetto gondola imbroglio lagoon lazaret lido Montenegro and regatta.


Printing

By the end of the 15th century Venice had become the European capital of printing having 417 printers by 1500 and being one of the first cities in Italy (after Subiaco and Rome) to have a printing press after those established in Germany. The most important printing office was the Aldine Press of Aldus Manutius; which in 1497 issued the first printed work of Aristotle; in 1499 printed the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili considered the most beautiful book of the Renaissance; and established modern punctuation page format and italic type.


Painting

Main article: List of painters and architects of Venice

See also: Venetian School (art)

Venice especially during the Middle Ages the Renaissance and Baroque periods was a major centre of art and developed a unique style known as the Venetian School. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Venice along with Florence and Rome became one of the most important centres of art in Europe and numerous wealthy Venetians became patrons of the arts. Venice at the time was a rich and prosperous Maritime Republic which controlled a vast sea and trade empire.

In the 16th century Venetian painting was developed through influences from the Paduan School and Antonello da Messina who introduced the oil painting technique of the Van Eyck brothers. It is signified by a warm colour scale and a picturesque use of colour. Early masters were the Bellini and Vivarini families followed by Giorgione and Titian then Tintoretto and Veronese. In the early 16th century there was rivalry in Venetian painting between the disegno and colorito techniques.

Canvases (the common painting surface) originated in Venice during the early Renaissance. These early canvases were generally rough.

In the 18th century Venetian painting had a revival with Tiepolo's decorative painting and Canaletto's and Guardi's panoramic views.


Venetian architecture

Main articles: Venetian Gothic architecture and Venetian Renaissance architecture

Venice is built on unstable mud-banks and had a very crowded city centre by the Middle Ages. On the other hand the city was largely safe from riot civil feuds and invasion much earlier than most European cities. These factors with the canals and the great wealth of the city made for unique building styles.

Venice has a rich and diverse architectural style the most prominent of which is the Gothic style. Venetian Gothic architecture is a term given to a Venetian building style combining the use of the Gothic lancet arch with the curved ogee arch due to Byzantine and Ottoman influences. The style originated in 14th-century Venice with a confluence of Byzantine style from Constantinople Islamic influences from Spain and Venice's eastern trading partners and early Gothic forms from mainland Italy.[citation needed] Chief examples of the style are the Doge's Palace and the Ca' d'Oro in the city. The city also has several Renaissance and Baroque buildings including the Ca' Pesaro and the Ca' Rezzonico.

Venetian taste was conservative and Renaissance architecture only really became popular in buildings from about the 1470s. More than in the rest of Italy it kept much of the typical form of the Gothic palazzi which had evolved to suit Venetian conditions. In turn the transition to Baroque architecture was also fairly gentle. This gives the crowded buildings on the Grand Canal and elsewhere an essential harmony even where buildings from very different periods sit together. For example round-topped arches are far more common in Renaissance buildings than elsewhere.


Rococo style

It can be argued that Venice produced the best and most refined Rococo designs. At the time the Venetian economy was in decline. It had lost most of its maritime power was lagging behind its rivals in political importance and its society had become decadent with tourism increasingly the mainstay of the economy. But Venice remained a centre of fashion. Venetian rococo was well known as rich and luxurious with usually very extravagant designs. Unique Venetian furniture types included the divani da portego and long rococo couches and pozzetti objects meant to be placed against the wall. Bedrooms of rich Venetians were usually sumptuous and grand with rich damask velvet and silk drapery and curtains and beautifully carved rococo beds with statues of putti flowers and angels. Venice was especially known for its beautiful girandole mirrors which remained among if not the finest in Europe. Chandeliers were usually very colourful using Murano glass to make them look more vibrant and stand out from others; and precious stones and materials from abroad were used since Venice still held a vast trade empire. Lacquer was very common and many items of furniture were covered with it the most noted being lacca povera (poor lacquer) in which allegories and images of social life were painted. Lacquerwork and Chinoiserie were particularly common in bureau cabinets.


Glass

Main article: Venetian glass

Venice is known for its ornate glass-work known as Venetian glass which is world-renowned for being colourful elaborate and skilfully made. Many of the important characteristics of these objects had been developed by the 13th century. Toward the end of that century the center of the Venetian glass industry moved to Murano an offshore island in Venice. The glass made there is known as Murano glass.

Byzantine craftsmen played an important role in the development of Venetian glass. When Constantinople was sacked in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 some fleeing artisans came to Venice; when the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453 still more glassworkers arrived. By the 16th century Venetian artisans had gained even greater control over the color and transparency of their glass and had mastered a variety of decorative techniques. Despite efforts to keep Venetian glassmaking techniques within Venice they became known elsewhere and Venetian-style glassware was produced in other Italian cities and other countries of Europe.

Some of the most important brands of glass in the world today are still produced in the historical glass factories on Murano. They are: Venini Barovier & Toso Pauly Millevetri and Seguso. Barovier & Toso is considered one of the 100 oldest companies in the world formed in 1295.

In February 2021 the world learned that Venetian glass trade beads had been found at three prehistoric Eskimo sites in Alaska including Punyik Point. Uninhabited today and located a mile from the Continental Divide in the Brooks Range the area was on ancient trade routes from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean. From their creation in Venice researchers believe the likely route these artifacts traveled was across Europe then Eurasia and finally over the Bering Strait making this discovery "the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent." After radiocarbon dating materials found near the beads archaeologists estimated their arrival on the continent to sometime between 1440 and 1480 predating Christopher Columbus.


Festivals

See also: Carnival of Venice and Venice Film Festival

The Carnival of Venice is held annually in the city It lasts for around two weeks and ends on Shrove Tuesday. Venetian masks are worn.

The Venice Biennale is one of the most important events in the arts calendar. In 1895 an Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale (biennial exhibition of Italian art) was inaugurated. In September 1942 the activities of the Biennale were interrupted by the war but resumed in 1948.

The Festa del Redentore is held in mid-July. It began as a feast to give thanks for the end of the plague of 1576. A bridge of barges is built connecting Giudecca to the rest of Venice and fireworks play an important role.

The Venice Film Festival (Italian Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia) is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale.


Music

Main article: Music of Venice

See also: Venice in media Venetian polychoral style Music of Veneto and Venetian School (music)

The city of Venice in Italy has played an important role in the development of the music of Italy. The Venetian state – i.e. the medieval Republic of Venice – was often popularly called the "Republic of Music" and an anonymous Frenchman of the 17th century is said to have remarked that "In every home someone is playing a musical instrument or singing. There is music everywhere."

During the 16th century Venice became one of the most important musical centers of Europe marked by a characteristic style of composition (the Venetian school) and the development of the Venetian polychoral style under composers such as Adrian Willaert who worked at St Mark's Basilica. Venice was the early center of music printing; Ottaviano Petrucci began publishing music almost as soon as this technology was available and his publishing enterprise helped to attract composers from all over Europe especially from France and Flanders. By the end of the century Venice was known for the splendor of its music as exemplified in the "colossal style" of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli which used multiple choruses and instrumental groups. Venice was also the home of many noted composers during the baroque period such as Antonio Vivaldi Ippolito Ciera Giovanni Picchi and Girolamo Dalla Casa to name but a few.


Orchestras

Venice is the home of numerous symphony orchestras such as the Orchestra della Fenice Rondò Veneziano Interpreti Veneziani and Venice Baroque Orchestra.


Cinema media and popular culture

Venice has been the setting or chosen location of numerous films games works of fine art and literature (including essays fiction non-fiction and poems) music videos television shows and other cultural references.


In films

Examples of films set or at least partially filmed in Venice include:

Summertime (1955) starring Katharine Hepburn
Three James Bond films: From Russia with Love (1963) Moonraker (1979) and Casino Royale (2006)
Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice (1971)
Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973)
Blume in Love (1973)
Fellini's Casanova (1976)
A Little Romance (1979)
Dangerous Beauty (1988) the biography of Veronica Franco
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
Blame It on the Bellboy (1992)
Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Pokémon Heroes (2002) is set inside a city based on Venice although it is titled differently and features sights not present within its real-world equivalent. (The city is otherwise virtually identical to Venice.)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
The Italian Job (2003)
The Tourist (2010)
Penguins of Madagascar (2014)
Inferno (2016)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

In music

The city has been the setting for music videos of such songs as Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Dear Prudence" in 1983 and Madonna's "Like a Virgin" in 1984. The city was referenced in Ricky Montgomery's 2016 song "My Heart Is Buried In Venice".


In video games

The city is the setting for parts of such video games as Assassin's Creed II and Tomb Raider II. It has also served as inspiration for the fictional city of Altissia in Final Fantasy XV. The city also serves as a setting for The House of the Dead 2. The city appears as the first main level in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. It is also featured in Valve's first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as the inspiration for the multiplayer map "Canals".

Venice was the base theme for Soleanna one of the hub worlds in Sonic the Hedgehog. One of the nine playable characters Silver the Hedgehog was once a mink named "Venice" during development. The idea was ultimately scrapped.

In April 2018 the multiplayer shooter video game Overwatch released the map Rialto based on the city center.[citation needed]


Photography

Fulvio Roiter was the pioneer in artistic photography in Venice followed by a number of photographers whose works are often reproduced on postcards thus reaching a widest international popular exposure.[citation needed]


Cuisine

Main articles: Venetian cuisine and Veneto wine

Venetian cuisine is characterized by seafood but also includes garden products from the islands of the lagoon rice from the mainland game and polenta. Venice is not known for a peculiar cuisine of its own: it combines local traditions with influences stemming from age-old contacts with distant countries.[clarification needed] These include sarde in saór (sardines marinated to preserve them for long voyages); bacalà mantecato (a recipe based on Norwegian stockfish and extra-virgin olive oil); bisàto (marinated eel); risi e bisi – rice peas and (unsmoked) bacon; fegato alla veneziana Venetian-style veal liver; risòto col néro de sépe (risotto with cuttlefish blackened by their own ink); cichéti refined and delicious tidbits (akin to tapas); antipasti (appetizers); and prosecco an effervescent mildly sweet wine.

In addition Venice is known for the golden oval-shaped cookies called baìcoli and for other types of sweets such as: pan del pescaór (bread of the fisherman); cookies with almonds and pistachio nuts; cookies with fried Venetian cream or the bussolài (butter biscuits and shortbread made in the shape of a ring or an "S") from the island of Burano; the galàni or cróstoli (angel wings); the frìtole (fried spherical doughnuts); the fregolòtta (a crumbly cake with almonds); a milk pudding called rosàda; and cookies called zaléti whose ingredients include yellow maize flour.

The dessert tiramisù is generally thought to have been invented in Treviso in the 1970s and is popular in the Veneto area.


Fashion and shopping

In the 14th century many young Venetian men began wearing tight-fitting multicoloured hose the designs on which indicated the Compagnie della Calza ("Trouser Club") to which they belonged. The Venetian Senate passed sumptuary laws but these merely resulted in changes in fashion in order to circumvent the law. Dull garments were worn over colourful ones which then were cut to show the hidden colours resulting in the spread of men's "slashed" fashions in the 15th century.[citation needed]

Today Venice is a major fashion and shopping centre; not as important as Milan Florence and Rome but on a par with Verona Turin Vicenza Naples and Genoa. Roberta di Camerino is the only major Italian fashion brand to be based in Venice. Founded in 1945 it is renowned for its innovative handbags made by Venetian artisans and often covered in locally woven velvet.

History

Main articles: History of the Republic of Venice and Timeline of (the city of) Venice

Origins

Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding of Venice tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees—from nearby Roman cities such as Padua Aquileia Treviso Altino and Concordia (modern Portogruaro) as well as from the undefended countryside—who were fleeing successive waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. This is further supported by the documentation on the so-called "apostolic families" the twelve founding families of Venice who elected the first doge who in most cases trace their lineage back to Roman families. Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons who were referred to as incolae lacunae ("lagoon dwellers"). The traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto (Rivoalto "High Shore")—said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421 (the Feast of the Annunciation).

Beginning as early as AD 166–168 the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the main Roman town in the area present-day Oderzo. This part of Roman Italy was again overrun in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and some 50 years later by the Huns led by Attila. The last and most enduring immigration into the north of the Italian peninsula that of the Lombards in 568 left the Eastern Roman Empire only a small strip of coastline in the current Veneto including Venice. The Roman/Byzantine territory was organized as the Exarchate of Ravenna administered from that ancient port and overseen by a viceroy (the Exarch) appointed by the Emperor in Constantinople. Ravenna and Venice were connected only by sea routes and with the Venetians' isolation came increasing autonomy. New ports were built including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores formed the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the lagoon dating from c. 568.

The traditional first doge of Venice Paolo Lucio Anafesto (Anafestus Paulicius) was elected in 697 as written in the oldest chronicle by John deacon of Venice c. 1008. Some modern historians claim Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually the Exarch Paul and Paul's successor Marcello Tegalliano was Paul's magister militum (or "general") literally "master of soldiers". In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the exarchate rose in a rebellion over the iconoclastic controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II. The exarch held responsible for the acts of his master Byzantine Emperor Leo III was murdered and many officials were put to flight in the chaos. At about this time the people of the lagoon elected their own independent leader for the first time although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear. Ursus was the first of 117 "doges" (doge is the Venetian dialectal equivalent of the Latin dux ("leader"); the corresponding word in English is duke in standard Italian duca. (See also "duce".) Whatever his original views Ursus supported Emperor Leo III's successful military expedition to recover Ravenna sending both men and ships. In recognition of this Venice was "granted numerous privileges and concessions" and Ursus who had personally taken the field was confirmed by Leo as dux. and given the added title of hypatus (from the Greek for "consul").

In 751 the Lombard King Aistulf conquered most of the Exarchate of Ravenna leaving Venice a lonely and increasingly autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the "duke/dux" later "doge") was at Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in the lagoon probably increased with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories as refugees sought asylum in the area. In 775/6 the episcopal seat of Olivolo (San Pietro di Castello namely Helipolis[citation needed]) was created. During the reign of duke Agnello Particiaco (811–827) the ducal seat moved from Malamocco to the more protected Rialto within present-day Venice. The monastery of St. Zachary and the first ducal palace and basilica of St. Mark as well as a walled defense (civitatis murus) between Olivolo and Rialto were subsequently built here.

Charlemagne sought to subdue the city to his rule. He ordered the pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast; Charlemagne's own son Pepin of Italy king of the Lombards under the authority of his father embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This however proved a costly failure. The siege lasted six months with Pepin's army ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw in 810. A few months later Pepin himself died apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.

In 828 the new city's prestige increased with the acquisition from Alexandria of relics claimed to be of St Mark the Evangelist; these were placed in the new basilica. Winged lions—visible throughout Venice—are the emblem of St Mark. The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop and as Byzantine power waned its own autonomy grew leading to eventual independence.


Expansion

From the 9th to the 12th century Venice developed into a city state (an Italian thalassocracy or repubblica marinara; there were three others: Genoa Pisa and Amalfi). Its own strategic position at the head of the Adriatic made Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable. With the elimination of pirates along the Dalmatian coast the city became a flourishing trade center between Western Europe and the rest of the world—especially with the Byzantine Empire and Asia) where its navy protected sea routes against piracy.

The Republic of Venice seized a number of places on the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200 mostly for commercial reasons because pirates based there were a menace to trade. The doge already possessed the titles of Duke of Dalmatia and Duke of Istria. Later mainland possessions which extended across Lake Garda as far west as the Adda River were known as the Terraferma; they were acquired partly as a buffer against belligerent neighbours partly to guarantee Alpine trade routes and partly to ensure the supply of mainland wheat (on which the city depended). In building its maritime commercial empire Venice dominated the trade in salt acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean including Crete and Cyprus in the Mediterranean and
became a major power-broker in the Near East. By the standards of the time Venice's stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as Bergamo Brescia and Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it was threatened by invaders.

Venice remained closely associated with Constantinople being twice granted trading privileges in the Eastern Roman Empire through the so-called golden bulls or "chrysobulls" in return for aiding the Eastern Empire to resist Norman and Turkish incursions. In the first chrysobull Venice acknowledged its homage to the empire; but not in the second reflecting the decline of Byzantium and the rise of Venice's power.

Venice became an imperial power following the Fourth Crusade which having veered off course culminated in 1204 by capturing and sacking Constantinople and establishing the Latin Empire. As a result of this conquest considerable Byzantine plunder was brought back to Venice. This plunder included the gilt bronze horses from the Hippodrome of Constantinople which were originally placed above the entrance to the cathedral of Venice St Mark's Basilica (The originals have been replaced with replicas and are now stored within the basilica.) After the fall of Constantinople the former Eastern Roman Empire was partitioned among the Latin crusaders and the Venetians. Venice subsequently carved out a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean known as the Duchy of the Archipelago and captured Crete.

The seizure of Constantinople proved as decisive a factor in ending the Byzantine Empire as the loss of the Anatolian themes after Manzikert. Although the Byzantines recovered control of the ravaged city a half-century later the Byzantine Empire was terminally weakened and existed as a ghost of its old self until Sultan Mehmet The Conqueror took the city in 1453.

Situated on the Adriatic Sea Venice had always traded extensively with the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world. By the late 13th century Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth it had 36 000 sailors operating 3 300 ships dominating Mediterranean commerce. Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and to support the work of the greatest and most talented artists. The city was governed by the Great Council which was made up of members of the noble families of Venice. The Great Council appointed all public officials and elected a Senate of 200 to 300 individuals. Since this group was too large for efficient administration a Council of Ten (also called the Ducal Council or the Signoria) controlled much of the administration of the city. One member of the great council was elected "doge" or duke to be the chief executive; he would usually hold the title until his death although several Doges were forced by pressure from their oligarchical peers to resign and retire into monastic seclusion when they were felt to have been discredited by political failure.

The Venetian governmental structure was similar in some ways to the republican system of ancient Rome with an elected chief executive (the doge) a senator-like assembly of nobles and the general citizenry with limited political power who originally had the power to grant or withhold their approval of each newly elected doge. Church and various private property was tied to military service although there was no knight tenure within the city itself. The Cavalieri di San Marco was the only order of chivalry ever instituted in Venice and no citizen could accept or join a foreign order without the government's consent. Venice remained a republic throughout its independent period and politics and the military were kept separate except when on occasion the Doge personally headed the military. War was regarded as a continuation of commerce by other means. Therefore the city's early employment of large numbers of mercenaries for service elsewhere and later its reliance on foreign mercenaries when the ruling class was preoccupied with commerce).

Although the people of Venice generally remained orthodox Roman Catholics the state of Venice was notable for its freedom from religious fanaticism and executed nobody for religious heresy during the Counter-Reformation. This apparent lack of zeal contributed to Venice's frequent conflicts with the papacy. In this context the writings of the Anglican divine William Bedell are particularly illuminating. Venice was threatened with the interdict on a number of occasions and twice suffered its imposition. The second most noted occasion was in 1606 by order of Pope Paul V.[citation needed]

The newly invented German printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 15th century and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482 Venice was the printing capital of the world; the leading printer was Aldus Manutius who invented paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag.[citation needed] His Aldine Editions included translations of nearly all the known Greek manuscripts of the era.


Decline

Venice's long decline started in the 15th century. Venice confronted the Ottoman Empire in the Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) and sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks in 1453. After the Fall of Constantinople Sultan Mehmed II declared the first of a series of Ottoman-Venetian wars that cost Venice much of its eastern Mediterranean possessions. Vasco da Gama's 1497–1499 voyage opened a sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope and destroyed Venice's monopoly. Venice's oared vessels were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing oceans therefore Venice was left behind in the race for colonies.[citation needed]

The Black Death had devastated Venice in 1348 and struck again between 1575 and 1577. In three years the plague killed some 50 000 people. In 1630 the Italian plague of 1629–31 killed a third of Venice's 150 000 citizens.

Venice began to lose its position as a center of international trade during the later part of the Renaissance as Portugal became Europe's principal intermediary in the trade with the East striking at the very foundation of Venice's great wealth. France and Spain fought for hegemony over Italy in the Italian Wars marginalising its political influence. However Venice remained a major exporter of agricultural products and until the mid-18th century a significant manufacturing center.[citation needed]


Modern age

During the 18th century Venice became perhaps the most elegant and refined city in Europe greatly influencing art architecture and literature. But the Republic lost its independence when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice on 12 May 1797 during the War of the First Coalition. Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city's Jewish population. He removed the gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city.

Venice became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the Treaty of Campo Formio on 12 October 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on 18 January 1798. Venice was taken from Austria by the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy. It was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814 when it became part of the Austrian-held Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. In 1848 a revolt briefly re-established the Venetian republic under Daniele Manin but this was crushed in 1849. In 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence Venice along with the rest of the Veneto became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy.

From the middle of the 18th century Trieste and papal Ancona both of which became free ports competed with Venice more and more economically. Habsburg Trieste in particular boomed and increasingly served trade via the Suez Canal which opened in 1869 between Asia and Central Europe while Venice very quickly lost its competitive edge and commercial strength.

During the Second World War the historic city was largely free from attack the only aggressive effort of note being Operation Bowler a successful Royal Air Force precision strike on the German naval operations in the city in March 1945. The targets were destroyed with virtually no architectural damage inflicted on the city itself. However the industrial areas in Mestre and Marghera and the railway lines to Padua Trieste and Trento were repeatedly bombed. On 29 April 1945 a force of British and New Zealand troops of the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant General Freyberg liberated Venice which had been a hotbed of anti-Mussolini Italian partisan activity.

Geography

Venice sits atop alluvial silt washed into the sea by the rivers flowing eastward from the alps across the Veneto plain with the silt being stretched into long banks or lidi by the action of the current flowing around the head of the Adriatic Sea from east to west.


Subsidence

Subsidence the gradual lowering of the surface of Venice has contributed—along with other factors—to the seasonal Acqua alta ("high water") when much of the city's surface is occasionally covered at high tide.




Building foundations

Those fleeing Barbarian invasions who found refuge on the sandy islands of Torcello Iesolo and Malamocco in this coastal lagoon learned to build by driving closely spaced piles consisting of the trunks of alder trees a wood noted for its water resistance into the mud and sand until they reached a much harder layer of compressed clay. Building foundations rested on plates of Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles.


Flooding

Between autumn and early spring the city is often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic. Six hundred years ago Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city. This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment.

In 1604 to defray the cost of flood relief Venice introduced what could be considered the first example of a "stamp tax".[citation needed] When the revenue fell short of expectations in 1608 Venice introduced paper with the superscription "AQ" and imprinted instructions which was to be used for "letters to officials". At first this was to be a temporary tax but it remained in effect until the fall of the Republic in 1797. Shortly after the introduction of the tax Spain produced similar paper for general taxation purposes and the practice spread to other countries.

During the 20th century when many artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry Venice began to subside. It was realized that extraction of water from the aquifer was the cause. The sinking has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods—the Acqua alta that rise to a height of several centimetres over its quays—regularly following certain tides. In many old houses staircases once used to unload goods are now flooded rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable.[citation needed]

Studies indicate that the city continues sinking at a relatively slow rate of 1–2 mm per annum; therefore the state of alert has not been revoked.

In May 2003 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the MOSE Project (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) an experimental model for evaluating the performance of hollow floatable gates; the idea is to fix a series of 78 hollow pontoons to the sea bed across the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above 110 cm the pontoons will be filled with air causing them to float and block the incoming water from the Adriatic Sea. This engineering work was due to be completed by 2018. A Reuters report stated that the MOSE Project attributed the delay to "corruption scandals". The project is not guaranteed to be successful and the cost has been very high with as much as approximately €2 billion of the cost lost to corruption.

According to a spokesman for the FAI:

Mose is a pharaonic project that should have cost €800m [£675m] but will cost at least €7bn [£6bn]. If the barriers are closed at only 90 cm of high water most of St Mark's will be flooded anyway; but if closed at very high levels only then people will wonder at the logic of spending such sums on something that didn't solve the problem. And pressure will come from the cruise ships to keep the gates open.

On 13 November 2019 Venice was flooded when waters peaked at 1.87 m (6 ft) the highest tide since 1966 (1.94 m). More than 80% of the city was covered by water which damaged cultural heritage sites including more than 50 churches leading to tourists cancelling their visits. The planned flood barrier would have prevented this incident according to variou