So what's the story behid Venice?

Question

By the looks of it from Google Earth, It seems like it was a really low land place, and because of leeching That whole plain got inundated. Was venice built Before or After this hapened? Was Venice a biger city and most of it got sunked, or Was venice bult in that Island to begin with?

Answer 1

Venice is actually a series of islands. Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Barbarian hordes regularly crossed the Alps and made their way to Rome to plunder her of all her riches. On the way down, they burnt and ravaged all in their path, including the villages that belonged to the precursors of the Venetians. Soon, the pre-Venetians took to fleeing to the mudflat islands in the lagoon they fished in every time invaders came through.

Eventually they settled there.

As the islands were fairly soft, they drove long, thick wooden piles into the earth and built on the solid foundation they provided. The story goes that over the years, the wooden piles leeched the minerals from the soil and sea and became petrified (that is, they became stone) and the buildings now sit on stone bases.

The Venetian islands started as separate communities, each with their own social and political centre. Eventually, they became one nation - the Republic of Venice.

When the islands unified, they became linked to one another via a series of bridges. This explains why it's so easy to get lost in Venice - you're walking along streets that had the centre of the island - and not the centre of the city - as its focus. The bridges were literally an after-thought and were placed wherever they could be.

Answer 2

Venice was founded by local people who moved to islands in the lagoon for protection against invasions by barbarians. The city is actually built on a number of islands, and therefore there's a lot of water.

A lot of water was pumped out of artesian wells which resulted in settling of the ground that Venice is built on. There's information on the sinking of Venice and the rising water levels at:

http://www.architectureweek.com/2001/081... and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/445891...

In the late fall and winter, parts of the city flood when winds over the sea, ocean swell, and high tides combine. There are raised walkways in parts of the city for people to get around until the tides go back out. It's interesting to watch the water bubbling up from the drains in Piazza San Marco. On a couple of occassions over the past few years, I've seen the opposite effect - at extreme low tides with winds at sea blowing away, the water levels drop significantly and there's not much water in the canals.

There's a summary of Venice's history here: http://www.boglewood.com/timeline/home.h... and http://www.venezia.net/venice/venice-his...