Lecture Series - Building Venice: Stato da Mar, Stato da Terra

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Building Venice: Stato da Mar, Stato da Terra

Venice rose from the water of a lagoon in the upper Adriatic. From the fifth century the Adriatic Veneti sought refuge on its scattered islands from the Visigoth, Hun and Longobard invasions that overran the north-eastern Italian peninsula as the Roman world within ‘Italy’ and beyond fell apart. These intrepid people designed and built the foundations of their freedom, their future independence and what became the extraordinary mercantile city of Venice and its republic. They began by using reeds and wood, upgrading to more durable materials as opportunity and wealth allowed. Trade developed which made them wealthy through staples such as salt and a vast range of spices and luxury materials. Canals were dug and churches and palaces were built from stone and marble giving us this extraordinary city.

James Hill will present two lectures on the miracle that is the building of Venice and its Republic. In the first, he explores the city’s origins and the extraordinary innovations that helped create a city ‘on water’. In the second, he explores the remarkable rise of Venice as a trading republic and its mercantile power spread across coastal and island possessions in the easterly Adriatic coast, the eastern Mediterranean and eventually on terraferma across much of northern Italy.

Lecture 1 – Venice emerges: raising the Serenissima

Thursday 12 May 2022 at 11am 

At the beginning of the Christian era rising sea levels covered much of the coastal Veneto. Sea levels later decreased to leave a series of small islands whose natural evolution was aided by deposits from Alpine rivers which flowed into the northern Adriatic. The lagoon, dotted with these small islands, was formed via a kinetic struggle between fresh and salt water, and earth which fed the emerging marshes. From this unpromising beginning, early settlers used what they could as a foundation for rudimentary wooden housing. As Venice slowly arose, its thirst for building materials extended with wood coming from the dense forests of the lower Dolomites to the north, and white stone from the quarries of the Istrian peninsula to the east across the Adriatic coast. By the start of the second millennium, the families of Venice had begun to form their unique system of government presided over by a Doge, simultaneously constructing their palaces along its biggest canal. The Casa-Fondaco (a home warehouse) became the backbone of its emerging economy as the city’s trading operations continued to expand. The city’s prestige was further ‘blessed’ with the dubious acquisition of the relics of St Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria, conferring on it a self-proclaimed exalted status, so useful as Venice sought power beyond its lagoon.

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