Venice takes her place among the world's wonders not solely because of her unrelenting flow of facades or her abundance of art works, although these no doubt contribute to her glory. Neither do her piazzas or her palazzos alone - although acclaimed throughout the world - earn her that position. For is it not true that many Italian cities boast art and architecture, piazza and palazzo? Venice, that city which has drawn and mesmerized writers, painters, rulers and romantics for centuries, reigns among the wonders of the world for one supreme reason - good or bad, there is no other like her. She is, quite simply, unique.
In her combination of natural and man made, in the synthesis of myth and reality, of past and present, of beauty and decay, in the legends woven around the famous and infamous who have passed through and written poem, novel, play, Venice stands as a city where today is slightly suspended and yesterday - even if it has been touched up by the restorer's brush - reigns. Lovers can sit on the spot where Casanova wooed one of his many mistresses; can walk the bridge where 16th century prostitutes plied their ancient trade; and can stay in the same hotel as the composer Verdi did in 1851.
Venice also symbolizes the struggle between man and nature. For it seems the waters should have claimed her by now. Indeed, were it not for strenuous efforts to stop her sinking, Venice may indeed have continued on her way toward the bottom of the lagoon - a wonder lost for all time.
VENICE AND HER SYMBOLS:
If the [L3 301 / piazza] is Venice's echo of Italian tradition, its divergence is its openness. While cities such as Florence grew up behind walls, [P 020 / Venice's] [L3 302 / position in a lagoon] on the Adriatic shore offered freedom from fortifications and heavy, forbidding architecture.
If there is a single icon denoting Venice, however, cast aside the piazza - as difficult as it may be with the magnificent [L3 303 / P 008 / Piazza San Marco] - and the palazzo. [L3 304 / P 011 / V 004 / The gondola], despite its [L3 305 / diminishing importance] for the locals and reputation as a tourist gimmick, is Venice's enduring symbol.
SHOWPIECE CHURCHES:
The numerous churches, including the magnificent [L3 802 / P 002 / M 012 / Basilica di San Marco], earn their place in the pecking order of Venetian allure not merely because they exist in such vast numbers. Some of Venice's greatest architecture, its most beautiful paintings, its most remarkable sculpture, ornamentation and decoration, can be found in or on its churches.
The [G 03 / Basilica] di San Marco, with its confusion of architectural styles, has been described as one of the world's most beautiful buildings. As well as containing an outstanding collection of art, the church is also considered one of the most important in Christendom. Built and [L3 306 / adorned throughout eight centuries], the goal consistently remained the glorification of the Venetian state. The Basilica's greatest treasure is the [L3 307 / Pala d'Oro], a gold altarpiece first made in Constantinople in 976. The [L3 308 / mosaics] are also among the world's finest and to which San Marco owes much of its opulence.
Churches also unite architectural styles and influences. The link between the Early and the High Renaissance is characterized by the [L3 807 / Church of San Salvatore], which had its Venetian baroque facade added in the second half of the 17th century - about 150 years after building actually started. The church was designed in the early 1500s by Giorgio Spavento, Tullio Lombardo and, finally, Sansovino in 1534.
Venice's most grotesque architecture belongs to a church - giant heads and masks are displayed on the 17th century [L3 809 / Ospedaletto Church]. More of the grotesque, an important feature of Venice's street character today, is evident on the base of the [G 05 / campanile] at the Campo Santa Maria Formosa.
Not every church in Venice is acclaimed. The facade of [L3 808 / San Moise] - overdone, over-heavy and overcrowded - is among the buildings no one has ever waxed lyrical over. A baroque disaster, it had even more ornamentation added some 20 years after it was built in the 1660s. Some of these have since been removed.
PRIDE OF PALAZZOS:
Overshadowed by the gondola and churches they may be, Venice's palazzos - decaying, decrepit or restored - still take pride of place on the [L3 311 / Grand Canal], itself one of Venice's great talking points. The most beautiful are the [L3 312 / Ca d'Oro], the [L3 313 / Palazzo Rezzonico] and the Palazzo Pesaro.
Other palaces add life to Venice's stones. The Palazzo Dandolo, in its time, was notorious as a gambling house, called Ridotto. Today, the Palazzo houses the Danieli, a hotel since 1822. A few of the palazzos are still owned by the families that built them; the [L3 310 / Palazzo Albrizzi], which also has one of Venice's few completely preserved 18th-century interiors, is one.
Although there is no doubt most of the palazzos are [L3 314 / not as splendid] or as beautiful as they once were, they differ in one vital aspect from the grand structures of Florence, Rome or Siena. More than 100 of them face the two-mile, S-shaped Grand Canal as among the most magnificent thoroughfares in the word.
The [P 015 / Grand Canal], which divides the city into unequal halves, was also host to some of Venice's most colorful and famous characters. Guiseppi Verdi, for instance, stayed at the Hotel Albergo Europa in 1851 while he was conducting rehearsals for the first performance of `Rigoletto.' It is said he kept the song `La Donna e Mobile' secret until the very last moment. For he knew that once the catchy tune was out, it would be on the lips of every errand boy who heard it. One of the more quirky women who rode the Canal was the Contessa Marina Querini-Benzon, of the Palazzo Querini-Benzon. She was known for the steam rising between her breasts from a hot piece of [G 26 / polenta] placed there in case she became hungry while riding in her gondola.
Venice has another magical advantage over the [L3 315 / facades] of other Italian cities - its reflection in the water. These palazzos were built to accommodate the water that ran by them. Access to them was possible through a triple-arched entrance facing the canal. After the 15th century, it was common for all palazzos - not just the homes of fabulously rich families - to have their main facades face the canal.
CAR-LESS CHARM:
Venice has an additional charm that has more to do with combinations of features than with single splendors, and much to do with the exclusion of cars. Its [V 004/canals] (four or five yards wide and windy), its 400-odd bridges (including the famous [P 013 / Ponte di Rialto], which was the [L3 316 / first of Venice's bridges], and the [L3 810 / Ponte dell' Accademia]), narrow streets, and alleys tie the city together like no roads could. The very nature of Venice makes the presence of motor vehicles impossible. Venetians and visitors have no choice but to walk the city, exposed to its elements - beautiful and ugly alike - like no drivers ever are.
Venice's streets do not exactly count among Europe's, or even Italy's, most spacious. The widest is the [L3 317 / Calle Larga XXII Marzo], built in 1880. Antique shops and banks have found comfortable homes here. The busiest is the Mercerie, which starts at the [P 003&P004&P005 / Torre del' Orologio] on the [V 003 / Piazza San Marco] and runs to the Rialto. One of its five parts leads to the [L3 806 / Church of San Zulian] or Giuliano. Perfumes, silks, paintings, leather, jewelry and the ubiquitous glass have all at one time or another taken pride of place in a street described as `one of the most delicious streets in the world . . . '
RISING TIDES:
Behind the gondola and the gilt is a real threat: as the levels of the Adriatic rise, [L3 318 / Venice sinks]. At the same time, the [I 003 / wooden piles] holding up the city are rotting. [L3 319 / Floods], which were fairly rare in the 18th century, are increasing. Modern additions, like motor boats and [L3 320 / industrial development], also take their toll. The most dire opinions say Venice is sinking at a rate of an inch every five years. Add to this to the [L3 321 / pollution] and Venice's future as one of the world's great wonders seems doomed. However, Venetians are at extreme pains to [L3 322 / preserve and maintain] their city's buildings. The slowing down of the rate at which Venice is sinking has given cause for some optimism.
ART AND ARCHITECTURE:
Venice draws comment for its play of natural light and shade. Its man-made wonders capture and play with natural elements - sky, water, light - to full advantage.
Venice's [L3 323 / artists] attained a higher status than its architects - few were in fact from Venice itself. The architects in turn, eclipsed Venice's [L3 324 / sculptors]. Yet art and architecture managed to coalesce. The design of Venetian structures maximized the effects of Venice's peculiar light and in building decoration there was a passion for color. In some respects this was an expression of fantasy - most evident in the bizarre carved heads on buildings.
Venice held onto the Gothic tradition longer than most artistic centers. It was to Venice and Milan that artists clinging to Gothic tradition fled to escape the triumph of the Renaissance in the early 1400s. By the 16th century, Venetian painters had reached powerful heights throughout Europe - a position they maintained throughout the century. Most prominent were Giorgione and Titian. Tintoretto and Veronese emerged in the middle of the century. In early Renaissance Venice, [L3 325 / painters, sculptors and architects] collaborated on a level unmatched before or since.
Despite the grandeur of the Venetian palaces built during the Renaissance, none of those built during the Early Renaissance compare well to those in Florence or Siena. It was only in the cinquecento (16th century) that masterpieces of Venetian palace architecture began to emerge and set the style for the following two centuries.
This emergence is attributed solely to the Florentine sculptor Jacopo Tatti (1486-1570), more commonly known as [L3 326 / Jacopo Sansovino] after his master, Andrea Sansovino. Among his masterpieces is the [L3 803 / Library of San Marco], which was completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. However, while it may have a grand library, Venice has never claimed to be a great literary city; she can, however, claim to have attracted some of the world's greatest literary figures. Sansovino was also responsible for [L3 804 / the Zecca].
[L3 328 / Andrea Palladio] was another architect of genius to weave his wonder over Venice. His landmark Church of San Giorgio Maggiore on the [L3 329 / island of San Giorgio Maggiore]faces Venice across the Canale San Marco and set some new architectural standards. The church's interior is his most grand, and he devised [L3 330 / an ingenious solution] to the problems of designing a facade for the odd shape of a Christian basilica's cross section.
ISLAND LINKS:
There are about 200 islands - depending on how you count them; some say only 120 - in Venice. The Rialto, originally the name given to the cluster of islands which became known as Venice, housed the first settlers. Although they soon moved off in the direction of the Doge's Palace, the Rialto remained the commercial heart of Venice. The markets in the area are as colorful as anything else Venice boasts. At the end of the 12th century the first of the bridges were built over the canal at Rialto.
Eight islands, linked by bridges, make up [M 003 / La Giudecca]. Formerly a haven of quiet and solitude, the greenery has disappeared as has the peace. Yet even today its thriving business is carried out among the architectural survivors of its quieter period. Some of these are Palladio's simple church of Santa Maria della Presentazione, also known as Le Zitelle; the Garden of Eden, the largest private garden in Venice which was laid by an Englishman called Eden; and Palladio's [L3 805 / Church of the Redentore], built in 1577 and consecrated in 1592.
Venice's most popular islands, apart from the Lido, are the cemetery island of [L3 331 / San Michele], [L3 332 / P 024 / V 005 / Murano] and [P 023 / Burano], famous for its lace. Less accessible but no less magical are the former leper colony of San Lazzaro degli Armeni and the island of the Franciscans, [L3 333 / San Francesco del Deserto].
LIVING WONDERS - THE PEOPLE:
Venice's character, and not a little of her romance, is shaped by the personalities associated with her in a broader way than a summer sojourn, a scene from an opera, or a song.
This begins with the Venetians themselves and the peculiar dialect - itself varying from area to area - that distinguishes them from their Italian brothers. Venice's businessmen, traders, craftsmen and men who made the laws all contributed to shaping a people as distinct as their city.
Apart from the reputation given them by Shakespeare, Venice's Jews add a dimension to the city which has less to do with their religion than the attitudes and behavior they evoked from Venetians. In 1516, the [L3 334 / Campo di Ghetto Nuovo], originally the home of Venice's foundries, was set apart as the city's Jewish quarter. This lasted, along with various forms of maltreatment, until Napoleon in 1797 ordered the Jews may live where they pleased.
