Venice is a unique
artistic achievement.
The city is built on 118
small islands and seems
to float
on the waters of the lagoon.
The influence of Venice on the development of
architecture and monumental arts has been
considerable. Venice possesses an incomparable
series of architectural ensembles illustrating the age
of its splendour. It presents a complete typology
whose exemplary value goes hand-in-hand with the
outstanding character of an urban setting which had
to adapt to the special requirements of the site. In
this lagoon covering 50,000 km2, nature and history
have been so closely linked since the 5th century AD
when Venetian populations, to escape barbarian
raids, found refuge on the sandy islands of Torcello,
Iesolo and Malamocco. These temporary settlements
gradually became permanent and the initial refuge
of the land-dwelling peasants and fishermen became
a maritime power.
The small island of Rialto was chosen as the
headquarters of the new city. In AD 1000, Venice
controlled the Dalmatian coast and in 1112 a trading
market was founded in the Levantine port of Sidon.
The year 1204 saw Venice allied with the Crusaders
to capture Constantinople. The abundant booty
brought back on that occasion, including the bronzes
horses of St Mark's, is only the more spectacular part
of the loot from Byzantium that the Doge Enrico
Dàndolo shared with his allies.
Under the Doge, a maritime empire of unequalled
power extended over the entire length of the shores
around the eastern Mediterranean, to the islands of
the Ionian Sea and to Crete. During the entire period
of the expansion of Venice, over the centuries when
it was obliged to defend its trading markets against
Venice
the commercial undertakings of the Arabs, the Genoese and the Ottoman Turks,as well as those of the European monarchs
who were envious of its power, Venice never ceased, in the literal sense of the term, to consolidate its position in the
lagoon.
The marriage with the sea, that sposalizio that since 1172 was symbolized by the ring of the Doge, who had replaced the
Dux (elected for the first time in 697 by an assembly of the people), was never called into question.