South to Venice
After a few days "at
altitude" in the mountains of Switzerland and Austria it was time
to travel through the Brenner Pass and down to Venice on the
Adriatic. Venice has many associated titles and nicknames. Perhaps the best
known are "La Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Masks", "City of
Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of
Canals". Some are exotic, others sound so dull, obvious and common
place. I especially like the title used for centuries by the Republic of
Venice: "La Serenissima" or "The Most Serene Republic of
Venice". "Serene"? Really? Venice's rich history seems, at
times, anything but serene. This was our 3rd visit and I still find
Venice fascinating, amazing, surprising and even serene, especially at night on
the Grand Canal.
Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace
One remark, attributed to
Napoleon, called it "the drawing room of Europe". The
magnificent Basilica San Marco sits at one end, facing into the square
bounded on 3 sides by graceful buildings of white marble above protected
arcades. Although its component buildings were built over several centuries and are in different styles it is wonderfully harmonious.
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| The arcaded buildings on the right side (northern) of the Basilica |
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| The Campanile. Built 1537-46, rebuilt after its collapse in 1902. |
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| Seaward face of the Doge's Palace. |
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| Decorative features of the Palace stonework. |
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| The capital (head) of each column tells a story |
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| Two large granite columns dominate the seaward entrance into the Piazzetta which leads into the much larger Piazza. They carry the 2 symbols of Venice - a statue of St Theodore and the winged lion which is the more well-known symbol which represents St Mark |
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| Many of the decorative figures around the column's base are badly eroded |
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| The Campanile, columns and Doge's Palace at the entrance of the Piazzetta seen from the Basin where the Grand Canal opens out into the main lagoon. |
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| Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) leads from the judicial areas of the Doge's Palace to the grim cells, many of which are below water level |
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| A section of the façade of the Chiesa Santa Maria Zobenigo with quite unusual decoration for a church. |
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| The Barbaro family endowed a church but ensured that it reflected the glory and achievements of a remarkable family that included successful generals, admirals, judges, diplomats, ambassadors, authors, scholars, senior churchmen and high government officials. |
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| The Venetian equivalent of the local car repair shop. Gondolas are brought in for a bit of repair work and a paint job. |
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| The romantic gondolas are for tourists or special occasions. The "vaporetto" or "water bus" is the mainstay of public transport in Venice. |
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| Our local city council maintains a fleet of cars for official use; in Venice it's a fleet of motor launches. |
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| Brightly painted houses along a small canal on the island of Burano about a half hour ferry ride from the main islands of Venice. |
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| The famous Rialto Bridge was almost hidden behind scaffolding and advertising material. From the bridge you could not even see the canal. |
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| Diners brave the cold weather to eat "al fresco". |
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| Was there ever a more beautiful City Hall than this? Ca' Farsetti was built in the 13th century by the heirs of Doge Enrico Dandolo who died in 1205 during the 4th Crusade and is buried in the upper gallery of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul) |
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| The famous Basilica Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal |
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| Basilica San Marco, New Year's Night. On the previous night the Piazza had been full of thousands of people welcoming in the New Year. |
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| A cold morning in the piazza. There are only a few tourists and, amazingly, even fewer pigeons.
From the cold of the Piazza we went upstairs to the Correr Museum. The building at the far end of the piazza (as seen from the Basilica San Marco) was the last to built. Napoleon commissioned it in 1810 to serve as palace and administrative centre for the Vice-regent. It later became yet another of the Habsburg palaces after Venice came under Austrian control. The building eventually came under state control and was used to house the important collection of works bequeathed to the city in 1830 by Teodoro Correr. The collection has been expanded by later donations and now it exhibits a wonderful collection of artworks, clothing, jewellery, decorative weapons, important documents and various artefacts.
The Doge's Palace ....
The title "Doge" is a Venetian dialect word related to the Latin "Dux" or "leader". He was the ruler of the Republic of
Venice - the ecclesiastical leader, military leader and chief
magistrate. He held the position for life and (officially, at least) no
member of his family could be associated with the position. For over 1050
years from 726 until the end of the republic there were 120 Doges, elected by a complex process intended to stop the rigging of elections.
New regulations for
the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in
force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their object was to minimize as
far as possible the influence of individual great families, and this was
effected by a complex elective machinery. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty
and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The
twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then
the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally
chose the forty-one who actually elected the doge. None could be elected
but by at least twenty-five votes out of forty-one, nine votes out of eleven or
twelve, or seven votes out of nine electors. A detailed description of
this process, and the ceremonial procession that followed, is preserved in
Martin Da Canale's work Les Estoires de Venise (English
translation by Laura K. Morreale, Padua 2009).
The Doge's palace is
an elegant building adjacent to the Basilica San Marco. It was a home,
palace, council chamber and courtroom. At various times sections were
destroyed by fire and rebuilt. The grand public rooms and entrances were
elaborately decorated to impress visitors with Venice's wealth and power.
Keeping Venice clean ....
Garbage/rubbish collection is more complex than just driving a collection truck past the houses as is done at home. A high proportion of the city's population live in multi-story dwellings on narrow lanes. They leave their small bags of garbage outside the doors where they are collected by runners who carry then to push carts which are then pushed to collection points on the sides of the canals. The carts are emptied into large containers. The collection barges come to the collection points and hoist lifts the containers which are emptied into the barge for removal and disposal. Now you know (or maybe you never even wondered).
  
Next Blog - travelling around the Veneto Region, north of Venice.
Paul & Judy
January, 2016
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