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• Ethnic/religious groups of Habsburg Empire
• Historical breakup of Yugoslavia ('91-'09)
• Muslim populations in European countries
• History of Christianization of Europe
• Soviet Union, Communist influence
• Map of European ethnic groups
• Map of Fascism in Europe (1922-75)
• History of Islamic conquest in Europe
• Religions & ethnic groups in Russia
• Detailed map of French colonization
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• Napoleon's conquests & legacy
• Ethnic & religious map of pre-Nazi Poland

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• Pecs, Hungary: collision point between
Muslim and Christian empires
• Auschwitz and Birkenau
• Poland's resistance to Nazis in pictures
• Muhammad cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's private summer home
• Ravenna: capital of Gothic empire
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• European traditional cultural costumes
• Inside the Vatican, house of all wealth
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• Croatia's Dubrovnik, untarnished gem

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• Islamic Mujahidin vs. Christian Spain
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Prussia vs. France (Nazi Propaganda)
• Libya: Europe will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible vs. Muslim Tatars
• Soviet Propaganda: Defeat of Germany  

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• An analysis of Mussolini's 1938 racialist legislation
• The disastrous effects of Soviet collectivization on Kazakhstan
• Changing meaning of Italian identity under Fascist rule
• Yugoslavia's independent break from East and West
• The Galicians: the Celts of Spain
• The modern Macedonian Slavs and Alexander the Great
• An argument for the Romanians' links to ancient Dacians
• Mussolini's Italian death camp for Jews, Slovenes, and Marxists
• The disappeared Jews of Hungary and the Arrow Cross regime
• The Gypsies in history and today, Europe's public enemy
• History of Jihad in Chechnya vs. Russians
• History of the Muslim Tatars in Eastern Europe
• Post-WWII expulsion of 10 million ethnic German civilians
• Ethnic & religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• Breakaway states and independence movements in Europe
• The ancient Germanic Runic alphabet and Runestones
• Teutonic Order and their 800-year legacy in Eastern Europe
• 460-year struggle for Albanian homeland, and 540 for Kosovo
• 2,800-year-old white mummies of China, bringers of Buddhism?
• Alexander the Great's Greek descendents in Pakistan?
• Visual History of Yugoslavia and its breakup (1918-2008)

--MORE & NON-ENGLISH--

Gallery & history of Venice, golden capital of the seas
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)

Print this Article    •    About the Author    •    Bibliography/Sources

This article offers my photos and observations from my vacation to Venice, as well as historical background of to the achievements of this magnificent and unusual lagoon city. Northern Italy's Venice (Venezia) is revered as one of the most unique and popular cities in the world, praised for its intricate mazes of canals, dense medieval alleys, ancient buildings and homes, and romanticized gondola boat rides. It is one of only a few cities of the world -- along with Tallinn in Estonia, Dubrovnik in Croatia, and many older villages in Germany -- that allows a visitor to step back in time into a city virtually preserved as it was in its golden age some 400 years ago. The extreme density of the old original island of Venice has prevented the use of vehicles, and has prevented any dramatic expansion or construction for nearly a century.

The flag and standard of the former imperial Venice, with the Venetian lion at center. (from atlasgeo.net)

For a brief historical background, Venice has an impressive history that few of its tiny size can match. Before 1870, there had been no unified Italy since the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. The region of Venice (Veneto) was merely one Italian city-state of many alongside Pisa, Florence, and Naples. Venice was originally built by Italian settlers fleeing from Germanic "barbarians," believing that building a small trading city on a remote lagoon would function as a guarantor of safety. None could have been sufficiently prescient to predict how magnificent the city they built would become. The geography of the region made this trading city an unavoidable stop, bringing tremendous wealth, artisans, architects, artists, and merchants to Venice. It became a centralized state by the late 11th century as an autocratic monarchy that invested the Doge with unchecked influence. By the 13th century, Venice gradually became a "republic," but one that citizens of modern liberal democracies like the United States would find completely unacceptable. Only the wealthiest minority was allowed to vote, slavery was rampant, and few were even allowed residence. The Doge was elected and often bought by an aristocratic council, whereafter he enjoyed tremendous authority and a wealthy lifestyle almost unimaginable. The Doge's Palace is stunning. Sources imply that few cities were as economically or politically unequal as Venice, when starving mendicants lay in feces-washed street corners gazing at silk-swaddled grandees. This was no liberal republic. By the 13th century, Venice became one of the great powers of the world, colonizing Crete, Cyprus, Corfu, Dalmatia (western Croatia/Dubrovnik), and dominating most of the trade in the Mediterannean. Even the Pope (the Papal States) went to war with Catholic Venice to curb its influence. Venice even led the Fourth Crusade against Christian Orthodox Byzantium, which obliterated the already-collapsing empire. With the triumph of the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and British as world powers, the atrophy of the Ottoman Empire as a trading power, and the fact that the eastern Mediterannean was no longer the only way eastward (since the Americas had been discovered), Venice went into consistent tumbling downward. By the 17th century, Venice was insignificant. It was finally destroyed by Napoleon before being annexed by the Germans (Austria-Hungary), and finally by the nation-building unified Italian Kingdom by 1870.

A rough map of the plethora of city-states that were modern Italy. (from cityofsound.com)

My photo of the canals of Venice. (click to enlarge)

Despite Venice's centuries of complete insignificance and economic stagnation, the old city (the island itself) remains in remarkable condition and radiance. Although the city is sinking and its buildings on the brink of collapse, redevelopment efforts have reversed the inevitable entropy. The famous "Venice" (only referring to the island) is reached exclusively by either a near-suffocating and claustrophobic public transportation ferry or for more than 60-100 Euros on a private boat ride that only requires some 15 minutes. The Old City remains a historical and visual jewel, though post-WWII immigration by West Africans is considered by most Italians to be a cause of an explosion in graffiti, crime, illegal product sale, and theft. Despite inevitable exaggeration, the inter-ethnic contrasts and conflicts are blatant on the streets of Venice. A trip on a gondola boat can reveal a massive 600-year-old church on one side of the canal and massive spray-painted Arabic-script graffiti on the other. As is famous in the Italian canal cities, the water is a shade of unclean brown, reeks intensely in parts, and is rife with trash, cigarette butts, and broken planks of wood. Locals and especially boatmen freely dispose of trash and discarded cigarettes into the canal waters. The Old City is extremely dense and crowded with foreigners on vacation, generally from the United States, and in some portions of the city movement even becomes constrained or impossible at all times of the day. The exclusivity of the city is exploited with great wisdom, as leather bags sold in the Old City may cost twice as much as on the mainland. Each restaurant charges an almost shocking price, although some immigrant-owned businesses offer much relief to the more frugal traveler. English is commonly spoken by nearly all of the inhabitants in Venice due to the expectation of tourism from England and America.

My photo of the traditional Venetian housing style. (click to enlarge)

My photo of a house covered in full gold leaf mosaics. (click to enlarge)

My photo of another set of wealthy homes on the canal shore. (click to enlarge)

My photo of a massive glorious church undergoing reconstruction. (click to enlarge)

My photo of the intricate carvings and etchings on a Venetian church.

My photo of a Muslim immigrant in Venice. Immigrant is perceived by many Italians as a major social problem (click to enlarge)

My photo of a group of African immigrant street peddlers. They are often arrested by the police for theft, illegal unlicensed sale, and grafitti. Racism and hostility towards immigrants in Italy is a growing problem.

The romanticized heritage of the Venetian Italians as poets, merchants, artists, chefs, and the pinnacle of a romantic loving experience is embraced here in Venice. Gondola boats offer cheese, wine, gold-leaf rims and decorations, and singing. As with the rest of Venice, price gouging is practically a virtue: a boat ride for some 15 minutes can cost nearly 100 Euros. The local red wine, like most Italian wine bought in Italy, is quite rich and refined. Dozens of painters offer artwork of the glorious city for sale in the oil and watercolor mediums, as the memory of the lovely canal city is one to seldom stale in the minds of its visitors. Medieval armor, guns, swords, medieval clothing, hand-sewn rugs, and other goods are sold in exploitation of the city's medieval heritage. The long history of Venice -- combined with the density being so intense that expansion is nearly impossible -- causes a great number of the buildings to be on the verge of collapse. Some buildings are supported by large inflated buoys to prevent falling into the canals. Many buildings have large steel beams outside them supporting the foundations. Many particular buildings even have massive frescoes and mosaics of gold-leaf with Biblical scenes on their exteriors directly facing the canal waters. Boats are required to drive slowly to prevent waters from splashing up onto the many buildings, restaurants, and locals standing at the shores. Subsidence and water damage make it such that in many windows tilt blatantly in different directions than the others.

Though the old city of Venice is rich in palaces, Catholic churches, monasteries, clocktowers, lighthouses, castles, and markets, Venice has surprisingly few indivdidual wonders or sites of particular infamy. Only St. Mark's Square, with the famous Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica, offers anything of tremendous note in comparison with most other ancient cities in Italy. A short walk through the city's many corridors opens into a massive courtyard filled with thousands of pigeons in St. Mark's Square. These pigeons even climb on the arms of many tourists, a rather unclean affair. Outside restaurants are also present right in the pigeon-infested courtyard. Tourists walking in the square may even be hit by pigeons flying by several times in a day. In the square stands a massive obelisk with Latin etchings, statues, stone carvings, copper plating, and a solid-gold leaf cross atop. In the center of the courtyard stands one of the greatest buildings ever built: St. Mark's Basilica. The cathedral was believed to originally house the corpse of St. Mark the Evangelist. His remains, burnt in a fire in 976, are housed in an altar in the main area of the church. This massive church has a thoroughly Byzantine Greek style due to their early history of cooperative patronage (until Venice ultimately destroyed Byzantium altogether). Women must wear veils or headscarves, and must cover their shoulders. Men must cover their shoulders and remove head coverings. This conservative tradition is strictly enforced, and headscarves may be bought inside the church. Visitors in the church may only stay for a short period. Entering into this glorious cathedral reveals that this is not simply a unique religious temple, but rather one of the greatest buildings in the world; it rivals the basilica of the Vatican, the Hagia Sophia, and all the cathedrals of Europe with ease. Nearly every inch of this massive church, whose interior rises nearly a hundred feet in the air, is covered entirely in fresco or mosaic of solid gold, gem, marble, stone, jewel, and even diamond. The exterior arches along with the five domes and their crosses, too, are covered in solid gold leaf. The value of this church is incomprehensible, and the museum inside of the church's ancient relics date back to Egypt and ancient Iran. Each wall of the basilica offers glorious and radiant depictions of Biblical scenes, of saints, of popes, of John the Baptist, of Jesus, of the sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac, leaders of the city, and other sequences. The seemingly endless historical wealth of the Venetians allows this church to be such a testament to their endurance and prestige. The foundations of the church were built as early as the 11th century, though the glory of the cathedral did not reach its modern grace until centuries later when Venice grew into importance. No photography is allowed therein, therefore no photographs can be shown below. This is an effort to prevent the decay and entropy of the building's treasures. This is the main church of the region's Catholic spiritual authority, and functioned as a semi-independent Catholic see, as Catholic Venice often had full-on war with the Pope and the Papal States.

My photo of St. Mark's Square with the obelisk and the basilica in the background. (click to enlarge)

My photo of St. Mark's Basilica, one of the greatest structures ever built. (click to enlarge)

My photo of the interior archways of the basilica. Pure gold mosaics. (click to enlarge)

Photo of the interior by an authorized photographer. (click to enlarge)

A photo of the main archway in the interior. (from sights-and-culture.com)

An interior dome; its glory cannot be shown sufficiently. (click to enlarge)

Connected to the church is the famous Doge's Palace, the royal house of the elected duke-king of the Venetian "Republic." The incalculable wonder of the Doge's Palace illustrates how truly unequal and un-"democratic" Venice was. Barely the Pope enjoys such opulence in a personal home that truly rivals Versailles in France, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Schönbrunn-Palast in Vienna, and Windsor in England. The structure of the Doge's Palace was built from 9th century foundations from the 13th onward in white and pink Veronese marble in the design style of loggias and arcades of Istrian stone, giving it a shimmering white glow of cleanliness and virginity that survives today. Whilst the other buildings of Venice are almost pitch-black with soot, the Doge's Palace is remarkably maintained. Inside the palace are a variety of massive maps, globes of gold, huge corridors and hallways with statues, cherrywood, and original furniture made of ivory and gold. The opulent rooms are almost endless. Huge prison complexes exist below dining rooms with roofs over 50 feet high. Many of the glorious paintings in this palace were stolen by Napoleon, and many of his generals used this great palace when staying in Venice. Few buildings or palaces are this glorious. No photography is allowed inside, and employees strictly enforce the ban. Thus, only the exterior can be shown below.

Venice offers the ability to experience the pinnacle of the Catholic world, the glorious wealth of this once-mighty trading empire, the heart of the Italian world, and the abundant history this volatile region has experienced for the last 1,000 years.

My photo of the Doge's Palace at right and the basilica of St. Mark in the center. (click to enlarge)

A glorious building that is part of the Doge's Palace with a beautiful clock at center. (click to enlarge)

A view from the canals of the main square with the palace at right. (from sights-and-culture.com)

A photo of a main room in the Doge's Palace.

A view of the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, with St. Mark's Basilica at center. (Click to enlarge)

Another angle of the magnificent courtyard (Click to enlarge)

Yet another angle of the courtyard (Click to enlarge)

________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Mayfield is a historian and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies (language and history), am presently working for my Masters in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate. I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles of native European and immigrant minority identities. See my staff entry for more information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES USED:

No additional citations or sources necessary. Some images posted are not my property, but I was unable to find an original owner, as many are redistributed to a number of websites. If you find that your property has been used, feel free to notify us.