VENICE AND ITS HISTORY

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VENICE AND ITS HISTORY
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• The first settlers of Venice were the Ligurians
  who perhaps came first and estabilished
  themselves on the Euganei Hills arriving here
  from the sea and the land, the Trojans escaping
  from their town and the Venetians coming from the
  Slavonic countries. All these peoples who came to
  our region joined the inhabitants of the Euganei
  Hills to form a single people.
• In the 1st century, the settlers of the South
  Lagoon, which was more exposed to the sea and
  which clearly was as healthy as the woody places,
  made contact with Roman civilization without
  fighting and receiving in exchange some
  remarkable economic advantages.
• During the whole Roman Empire, the Lagoon was
  little inhabited. It was a holiday resort for
  nobleman of that time. There were small ports for
  inland navigation and small settlements of
  fishermen.
• Little remains of early Venice, which was all
  made of wood.
• From the 1st nucleus around Rialto the town
  stretched Eastwards it was chiefly inhabited by
  the workers of the Arsenale.They lived in poor
  woodenhuts,built ships and bred fish in a small
  lake.
• When Venice grew bigger and started to trade with
  the East, they stopped breeding fish and the lake
  became the dock of the Arsenale, where the
  workers prepared the Serenissima fleet.
• The Arsenale was built in 1104.

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• Venice was an Italian Repubblica Marinara the
  others were Amalfi, Pisa and Genoa.
• Venice was also called Serenissima.
• It existed from the 9th century until the 18th
  century (1797).
• The city of Venice, previously a dependency of
  the Byzantine Empire, had established its
  independence of any eastern or western emperor in
  the 9th century.
• In the High Middle Ages, Venice became extremely
  wealthy through its control of trade to the
  Levant, and began to expand into the Adriatic Sea
  and oversea.
• Its strategic position at head of the Adriatic
  made Venetian naval and commercial power almost
  invulnerable.

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• Rialto was the first harbour of Venice. The great
  trading ports of the Mediterranean dealt in salt
  as well as spices and textiles. The greatest of
  them, Genoa and Venice, not only traded in salt
  but fought for supremacy over the trade.
• Genoa and Venice used all their political and
  military strength to consolidate their local
  trade and to overcome each other.
• When Venice made the decision to concentrate on
  the salt trade, the two came into conflict over
  salt.
• Venice managed to make a business out of control
  of the Adriatic salt trade and her wealth grew up.

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The Doge

• In the early years of the republic, the Doge was
  the almost absolute ruler.
• Doge of Venice was elected by the city-states
  aristocracy.
• After 1172 the election of the Doge was entrusted
  to a committee of forty, who were chosen by four
  men selected from the Great Council.
• The Doge and the Great Council met at Palazzo
  Ducale, built in different times. The Bridge of
  Sights was built some years later than Palazzo
  Ducale.
• Then, in 1229, the number of electors was
  increased from forty to forty-one.
• One of the ceremonial duties of the Doge was to
  celebrate the symbolic
• Marriage of Venice with the sea.
• This was done by casting a ring state barge, the
  Bucintoro, into the Adriatic.

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• In the latter half of the 15th century Venices
  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.

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• The Venetian merchant princes built magnificent
  palaces and encouraged Venetian artists. Venice
  was one of the great cultural centers of the
  Renaissance.
• In the early 16th century Venetian artists began
  to develop their own style, in which were used
  soft shading and dramatic use of light.
• Discovery of a new sea route to India weakened
  Venetian trade.

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• Discovery of a new sea route to India weakened
  Venetian trade.
• In 1797 the city was besieged by Napoleon, who
  demanded the abdication of the Doge. Napoleon
  granted the city to his allies, the Austrians
  (Treaty of Campo Formio), whose authoritarian
  rule drove many people of the Veneto to join the
  vanguard of the revolutionary Risorgimento. This
  movement was dedicated to creating a free and
  united Italy, a dream not fully realized until
  1870, four years after Venice was freed from
  Austrian rule.
• In 1848 First Italian War of Indipendence
  started. Venice revolted against Austrian rule.
  Venice and Veneto freed from Austrian rule and
  became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
• Venice suffered little damage during World Wars I
  and II. The city was taken over by the Germans in
  1943, and was attacked by allied planes. But
  allied bombers raided only the mainland, and
  fortunately spared Venice. The city remained in
  German hands until 1945.

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Carnival

• The tradition of Carnival in Venice began in the
  11th century and reached its peak of popularity
  and outrageousness in the 18th century.
• Carnival meant performances in theatres, in
  palazzi, in coffee-shops, but above all it meant
  a climate of widespread festivity in which
  ordinary people and nobles, all wearing masks,
  mingled with dancers and actors.
• In this climate of festivity the mask was the
  only possibility, in a society of social
  barriers, for everyone to be considered equal.
• When Carnival first began it was celebrated from
  December 26 and reached its climax the day before
  Ash Wednesday, also known as Mardi Gras .

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• Lisa Cagnin, Arianna De Donatis, Alessandra
  Locatelli, Chiara Premi