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• Ethnic/religious
groups of Habsburg Empire
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breakup of Yugoslavia ('91-'09)
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populations in European countries
• History
of Christianization of Europe
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Union, Communist influence
• Map
of European ethnic groups
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in Europe (1922-75)
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• Religions
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• Detailed
map of French colonization
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map of British colonization
• Napoleon's
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• Ethnic
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NON-ENGLISH--
• Pecs, Hungary: collision
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• Auschwitz and Birkenau
• Poland's
resistance to Nazis in pictures
• Muhammad
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• Stalin's
private summer home
• Ravenna:
capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas
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• European
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house of all wealth
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of Europe
• Croatia's
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• Islamic Mujahidin
vs. Christian Spain
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
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vs. France (Nazi Propaganda)
• Libya: Europe
will soon be Islamic
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vs. Muslim Tatars
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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)
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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.
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