Venice Steven Dutch University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Venice

• Steven Dutch

• University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Founding of Venice

• Early centuries CE: settled by refugees from mainland

• Lombards 568

• Byzantine Empire to 751

• 800-1100 Becomes independent city state

Keeping Dry

• City built on wood pilings

• Deforestation of east coast of Adriatic
• Piles in anoxic setting, do not decay
• Many still intact after centuries

• Foundations of Stone

• River Diversion to prevent silting of lagoon

Venice Rising

• 1172 Republic formed

• 1178 Brenner Pass captured

• 1100-1200 Occupies east shore of Adriatic to suppress piracy

• 1204 Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople

• 1200-1300 Peaks as maritime and trade power

• Marco Polo 1271-1295

Arsenal of Venice

Renaissance Venice

• War is commerce by other means

• Important supplier of mercenaries

• Italian Wars 1494-1559

• Papal Interdict 1509

• Artistic Peak

• Titian (c. 1488 -1576)
• Tintoretto (1518 -1594)
• Bellini (c. 1430 -1516)

• Our Bad: Blew up the Parthenon, 1687

Heart of Venice

St. Mark’s Square

St. Mark’s Basilica

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo

Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge

Bridge of Sighs

Heart of Venice

Modern Venice

• European fashion and cultural capital, 1700’s

• Vivaldi 1678-1741
• Casanova 1725-1798

• Conquered by Napoleon 1797

• End of 1070 years of independence

• Off and on occupation by Austria until 1866

• Incorporated into modern Italy 1866

Future Venice?

If everything beneath Venice is full of water, how can extracting water make Venice sink? Wouldn’t sea water just replace whatever is taken out?

Answer: Artesian Wells

The Big Picture

Water Drawdown by 1975

And Venice Sinks…

So What’s a Few Inches?

• Venice doesn’t have a lot of inches to spare

• Acqua alta (High Water) during storm tides and spring tides

• Persistent flooding of lower stories

• Salt water attack on masonry, metal

• Add to other natural sinking

• We want Venice to last for centuries

Saving Venice

• Stop Pumping Wells

• Halted in 1960’s

• Subsidence and Sea Level Rise

• Barriers at Lagoon Mouth

• What About Large Sea Level Change?

• Dikes?

• Raise or Relocate Prize Structures?

• Abandon?

• “Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky”

• “Dust in the Wind,” Kansas

• “Nothing lasts forever, not even the earth and sky”

• Geology