Venice , Ital. Venezia, city (1991 pop. 309,422), capital of Venetia and of Venice prov., NE Italy, built on 118 alluvial islets within a lagoon in the Gulf of Venice (an arm of the Adriatic Sea). The city is connected with the mainland, 2.5 mi (4 km) away, by a rail and highway bridge. Between the islands run about 150 canals, mostly very narrow, crossed by some 400 bridges. The Grand Canal, shaped like a reversed letter S, is the main traffic artery; its chief bridge is the Rialto , named after the island that was the historical nucleus of Venice. Gondolas, the traditional means of transport, have been superseded by small river boats ( vaporetti ), but there are numerous lanes ( calles ), public squares, and a few streets. Houses are built on piles.

Venice is a tourist, commercial, and industrial center. The tourist trade is stimulated by many annual festivals, including ones devoted to painting, motion pictures, drama, and contemporary music. The Venice Biennale, which exhibits various kinds of modern art every other year, has been held there since 1895. Manufactures include lace, jewelry, flour, and Murano glass, and the city is a center for shipbuilding. Porto Marghera, the modern port of Venice (founded in the 1920s), located on the mainland, is a major shipping facility and also has considerable industry.

Points of Interest

The center of animation in Venice is St. Mark's Square and the Piazzetta, which leads from the square to the sea. On the square are St. Mark's Church; the Gothic Doges' Palace (14th–15th cent.), from which the Bridge of Sighs (c.1600) leads to the former prisons; the Old and New Law Courts (16th–17th cent.); the campanile (325 ft/99 m high; built in the 10th cent.; rebuilt after it collapsed in 1902); the Moors' Clocktower (late 15th cent.); the elegant Old Library (1553); St. Moses' Church; and the twin columns supporting the statues of St. Theodore stepping on a crocodile and of a winged lion of St. Mark (the emblem of Venice). On an island facing the Piazzetta is the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (1566–1610) and on a nearby tip of land is the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (17th cent.).

Among the city's numerous other points of interest are the churches of Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari (with paintings by Titian), San Zanipolo (1234–1430), and San Zaccaria (with a Madonna by Bellini); the Academy of Fine Arts, with fine paintings by Bellini, Carpaccio, Mantegna, Giorgione, Veronese, and others; the Scuola di San Rocco, with a series of paintings by Tintoretto; the Scuola degli Schiavoni, with paintings by Carpaccio; and the palaces Ca' d'Oro (1440; late Gothic), Rezzonico (1680), and Pesaro (1710; baroque). The fashionable beach resort of Lido di Venezia is on a nearby island.

History

Founding and Rise of Venice

With Istria, Venice formed a province of the Roman Empire. In the 6th cent. refugees fleeing the Lombard invaders of N Italy sought safety on the largely uninhabited islands. The communities organized themselves (697) under a doge [Lat. dux =leader]. Favorably situated for handling seaborne trade between East and West, the communities grew, and by the 9th cent. they had formed the city of Venice.

The city secured (10th cent.) most of the coast of Dalmatia , thus gaining control of the Adriatic, and began to build up its eastern empire, obtaining trade and other privileges in the ports of the eastern Mediterranean. The influence of the Middle East, particularly Byzantium, which characterizes much Venetian art and architecture, is most clearly expressed in Saint Mark's Church (rebuilt 1063–73), located on the city's principal square. In 1204 the doge, Enrico Dandolo (see under Dandolo , family), led the host of the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades ) in storming Constantinople. Strategic points in the Ionian, the Aegean, and the E Mediterranean were taken, notably Crete (1216). The great traveler Marco Polo represented the enterprising spirit of Venice in the 13th and 14th cent.

Queen of the Seas

After defeating (1380) its rival Genoa in the War of Chioggia , Venice was indisputably the leading European sea power; its sea consciousness was expressed in the symbolic marriage ceremony of the doges with the Adriatic, celebrated with great pomp on the huge gilded gondola, the Bucentaur. All citizens shared in the prosperity, but the patrician merchants obtained political privileges. Membership in the great council, which by then had replaced the general citizenry as an electorate in the election of the doges, became restricted to an oligarchy. In reaction to an unsuccessful conspiracy in 1310, the Council of Ten (see Ten, Council of ) was instituted to punish crimes against the state. The Ten, by means of a formidable secret police, acquired increasing power, and the doge became a figurehead.

In the 15th cent. Venice, known as the "queen of the seas," reached the height of its power. The city engaged in a rich trade, especially as the main link between Europe and Asia; all Venetia on the mainland was conquered; and Venetian ambassadors, creators of the modern diplomatic service , made the power of the city felt at every court of the known world. The arsenal (founded 1104; rebuilt in the 15th and 16th cent.), where ships were built, was one of the world's wonders.

The decline of Venice can be dated from the fall (1453) of Constantinople to the Turks, which greatly reduced trade with the Levant, or from the discovery of America and of the Cape of Good Hope route to Asia, which transferred commercial power to Spain and other nations to the west of Italy. The effects were not felt immediately, however, and Venice continued its proud and lavish ways. In the Italian Wars , it challenged both the emperor and the pope; the League of Cambrai, formed (1508) by Pope Julius II to humble Venice, merely resulted in a few minor losses of the city's territory; the naval victory of Lepanto (1571) gave Venice renewed standing by undoing Turkish sea power.

The Renaissance marked the height of Venice's artistic glory. Architects like the Lombardo family, Jacopo Sansovino , and Palladio , and the Venetian school of painting, which besides its giants— Titian and Tintoretto —also included Giovanni Bellini , Jacopo Palma (Palma Vecchio), and Veronese , gave Venice its present aspect of a city of churches and palaces, floating on water, blazing with color and light, and filled with art treasures. Freedom of expression was complete except to those who actively engaged in politics; the satirist Aretino, the "scourge of princes," chose Venice as his place of residence, and John of Speyer , Nicolas Jenson , and Aldus Manutius made the city a center of printing.

Decline of Venice to the Present

The fall of Cyprus (1571), Crete (1669), and the Peloponnesus (1715; see Greece ) to the Turks ended Venetian dominance in the E Mediterranean. Although the dramatist Goldoni and painters such as Tiepolo and Canaletto still made Venice the most original artistic city of 18th-century Italy, they represented to some extent the decadence that accompanied the city's commercial and military decline. Politics in 18th-century Venice was aristocratic and stagnant. When, in 1797, Napoleon I delivered Venice to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio , the republic fell without fighting. During the Risorgimento, however, Venice played a vigorous role under the leadership of Daniele Manin ; having expelled the Austrians in 1848, it heroically resisted siege until 1849. In 1866, Venice and Venetia were united with the kingdom of Italy.

Since the 1950s, the city increasingly has been swamped by periodic floods, in part because it is sinking. Increased air pollution from cars and industrial smoke has contributed to the deterioration of the ancient buildings and works of art, and the high phosphorus and nitrogen content of the lagoon has stimulated algal growth, which has depleted marine life. Such environmental problems have led to a steady depopulation of Venice to the mainland over the past several decades. A major international aid program, begun in the mid-1960s by UNESCO, has searched for ways to preserve Venice; several government studies of Venice's problems have also been undertaken. In 1988, engineers began testing prototypes for a mechanical barrage, or sea gate, which could be raised in time of flooding to close the lagoon, and construction of system of sea gates began in 2003.

Bibliography

See P. G. Molmenti, Venice (tr., 6 vol., 1906–8); A. Tenenti, Piracy and the Decline of Venice, 1560–1615 (tr. 1967); M. Andrieux, Daily Life in Venice in the Time of Casanova (tr. 1972); O. Logan, Culture and Society in Venice, 1470–1790 (1972); W. H. McNeill, Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081–1797 (1974, repr. 2009); D. Howard, The Architectural History of Venice (1980); J. J. Norwich, A History of Venice (1982); J. Morris, The World of Venice (rev. ed. 1985); M. Tafuri, Venice and the Renaissance (1989); J. Pemble, Venice Rediscovered (1995); G. Wills, Venice: Lion City (2001).

Venice

A city of northeastern Italy that was a leading center of artistic innovation through the Italian Renaissance. Venice was founded in the fifth century by Romans fleeing an invasion of the Lombards, barbarians who were overrunning northern Italy. The settlers built their shelters on a series of low-lying islands that rose above a surrounding lagoon, protected from the tides of the Adriatic Sea by a series of barrier islands. A doge, or duke, ruled the island settlements, which remained part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire until Venice emerged as an independent city-state in the tenth century. The city extended its control to Dalmatia, the coastland along the eastern fringe of the Adriatic Sea, and began to send expeditions to the east. During the Crusades—medieval campaigns to wrest the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims—Venice established trading routes with several ports in the eastern Mediterranean. Venetian merchants such as Marco Polo voyaged via the Silk Road and other routes as far as China and other points in East

Asia. Venetian merchants grew wealthy through the control of eastern spices and other rare goods in high demand by the aristocrats and royalty of Europe. The city extended its boundaries by annexing Padua and other cities on the Italian mainland, as well as land along the Adriatic coast.

In the late fourteenth century, Venice bested its most important rival, the Italian city of Genoa, in the War of Chioggia, which ended in 1380. After this key event, Venice emerged during the Renaissance as one of the wealthiest states in Europe. Representatives of the Venetian doge and its ruling Council of Ten traveled throughout Europe, playing an important role in the diplomatic conflicts of the age. A fleet of more than three thousand ships ranged the Mediterranean, and Venice had captured several mountain passes through the Alps in order to control routes to northern Europe. Venetian power and wealth also posed a threat to the Papacy; the popes also sought authority over cities of the northern Italian plains and the Catholic Church frowned on the tolerance that allowed religious dissent within Venice itself. In 1508 Pope Julius II formed the League of Cambrai with France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to challenge Venetian might. The league failed in its mission, as Venice recaptured all of the mainland territories it had lost and emerged in the mid-sixteenth century as the strongest state in Italy.

The Venetian republic was founded on the authority of the doge—which eventually became a largely ceremonial office—and of the Great Council, a body of several hundred rulers drawn from among the city's noble families. The Council appointed public officials and elected a Senate, which in turn chose the Council often, a committee entrusted with the state's order and security. An extensive network of spies and informers rooted out dissent and conspiracy within the city, which harshly punished the slightest threat to its oligarchic form of government.

The art and architecture of Venice had their roots in Byzantine style; the Cathedral of Saint Mark raised in the eleventh century is lavishly decorated in marble, mosaic, and gilt. Many major artists, including the Bellini family, Paolo Veronese, Palladio, Titian, and Tintoretto, had their homes and workshops in the city, and decorated Venetian churches, monasteries, and public buildings with many of the most renowned frescoes and canvases of the Renaissance. Venice was also an important early center of the printing industry, and laid claim to the busiest publishing industry in Renaissance Europe. The presses of Venice turned out the first editions of classical Greek and Latin authors who played a vital role as a foundation of the intellectual and artistic life of the Renaissance.

Venice built a huge fleet of merchant ships at its famous Arsenal, one of the largest ship works in Europe. But with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, which conquered the Byzantine Empire in the middle of the fifteenth century, Venice was again contending for control of the eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman navy cut many of Venice's important links with the East. Despite the victory of a European alliance against the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Venice began a slow decline that lasted two centuries. Its merchant empire in the east was being surpassed by trade with the New World, which its rivals in Europe were exploiting, while the Turks eventually captured all the Venetian possessions in Greece as well as Cyprus and the coast of Dalmatia. In 1797 Venice was conquered by Napoléon Bonaparte, and granted by the French to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio. This put an official end to Venice's status as an independent republic.

Venice. Italian city, capital of region of Veneto. Its importance as a musical centre dates from 1527 when the Netherlands composer Willaert was appointed choirmaster of S. Marco Cath. Through his influence, Venice became centre of madrigal composition in private houses and academies. Under Zarlino, choirmaster from 1564, an instr. ens. was formed (1568) which, augmented, performed at large fests. Use of choral and instr. forces by dividing them into groups placed in different galleries of the cath. (cori spezzati) led to the dominating splendour of Venetian church mus. 1575–1610, notably under G. Gabrieli and A. Gabrieli. In 1612 Monteverdi was appointed choirmaster and remained for 30 years. He revivified the city's musical life, introducing younger composers, e.g. Cavalli and Grandi. The plague of 1630 ended the dominance of S. Marco in Venetian music-making and the balance was tipped towards operas, of which Monteverdi provided several masterly examples and was followed by Cavalli. Refusal of the authorities after 1642 to raise the salary of the choirmaster led to a decline in standard, halted only by Legrenzi, who achieved an increase in the size of the choir and orch. (to 36 and 34 respectively).

 After 1700 Venetian musicians made their living in the ospedali, charitable institutions for the sick and orphaned where mus. was taught and perf. in the chapels. From this milieu arose the next great sch. of Venetian composers, Vivaldi, Porpora, Sarti, Galuppi, Traetta, Jommelli, and Albinoni. Visitors to Venice included Gasparini, A. Scarlatti, and Handel.

 Galuppi excelled in opera buffa and collab. with the playwright Goldoni from 1749. Opera thrived again after the opening of the Teatro La Fenice in 1792 with a work by Paisiello. No Venetian sch. now existed, but f.ps. were given at La Fenice of operas by Cimarosa, Rossini (Tancredi, 1813), Meyerbeer (Il Crociato in Egitto, 1824), Bellini (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, 1830), and Donizetti (Maria di Rudenz, 1838). Several Verdi operas were commissioned for La Fenice, notably La traviata, 1853.

 In the 20th cent. La Fenice has been the birth-place of Dallapiccola's ballet Marsia (1948), Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951), Britten's The Turn of the Screw (1954), Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel (1955), Nono's Intolleranza (1960), and Bussotti's Lorenzaccio (1973). It has also staged the Venetian Malipiero's operas. These operas were given at the annual fest. of contemporary mus. held between 1948 and 1973. Stravinsky also comp. several choral and instr. works for Venice 1956–60 and was buried there near Diaghilev. The fascination of Venice for composers is epitomized by Britten's opera Death in Venice (1973) and it was in Venice that the dying composer wrote some of his 3rd str. qt. (1975). And not the least of Venice's claims to musical fame is that Richard Wagner died there on 13 Feb. 1883.

Venice (Venézia) City on the Gulf of Venice, at the head of the Adriatic Sea, n Italy, capital of Venetia region. Built on 118 islands, separated by narrow canals, in the Lagoon of Venice, and joined by causeway to the mainland. Settled in the 5th century, it was a vassal of the Byzantine Empire until the 10th century. After defeating Genoa in 1381, Venice became the leading European sea-power, trading with the Mediterranean and Asia. It declined in the 16th century, and was ceded to Austria in 1797, becoming part of Italy in 1866. Venice has many churches, palaces, and historic buildings, and is one of Europe's major attractions, drawing more than 2 million tourists a year. Tourism imposes a massive strain on a city already suffering from erosion, subsidence, and pollution. Industries: glass-blowing, textiles, petrochemicals. Pop. (2000) 275,368.

Venice. The see of Venice goes back to the bishopric founded in 774 on the isle of Olivolo, later known as Castello. Owing to disputes between the see of Olivolo and the patriarchate of Grado, to which it belonged, both were suppressed in 1451 and replaced by the patriarchate of Venice.

The most famous church is San Marco, originally the chapel of the Doges. Destined to receive the relics of St Mark, it was completed in 883. Burnt down in 976, it was rebuilt (1063–71) on the model of the Basilica of the Apostles at Constantinople. Its plan forms a Greek cross of equal arms, the centre and each arm being surmounted by a dome. It became the cathedral of the patriarchate in 1807.

Venice a city in NE Italy, situated on a lagoon of the Adriatic and built on numerous islands that are separated by canals and linked by bridges. It was a powerful republic in the Middle Ages and from the 13th to the 16th centuries a leading sea power, controlling trade to the Levant and ruling parts of the eastern Mediterranean.

Venice, Italy, USA Italy (Veneto): Italian Venezia. Named after Veneti tribes who withdrew into the lagoon under the onslaught of barbarian invasions in the 5th century. In 697 it became a republic which lasted until 1797 when it came under Austrian domination. It joined Italy in 1866.

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