History History

Covered with marshes, the Veneto region, occupied until then by the Henetians, was conquered by the Romans between 200 and 180 BC. Venetia is the name that designates the administrative region of the Roman Empire including the current Veneto, Friuli and Trentino. The Romans built a dense network of roads, canals and dykes. Cities of strategic commercial importance developed, such as Verona, Padua, Vicenza and Treviso. The Roman Empire fell in the year 476. For several decades, the Veneto was already a land of passage for barbarian invaders from the east. Visigoths, Huns and Lombards fought among themselves and against the Byzantine emperors in the Veneto lands, causing the economic and social decline of the region.

Between the 6th and 7th centuries, the local population took refuge on the islets of the lagoon to flee the invaders. While the rest of the territory succumbed to the invasions, the inhabitants of Veneto united under the protection of Byzantium and adopted an organization specific to their particular geographical situation. In the seventh century, the patriarch settles in Grado, the Byzantine administration in Heraclea, which it abandons in the eighth century for Malamocco. The power of the peoples of the lagoon will gradually assert itself: in 639 the basilica of Torcello is founded and in 697 a first governor called doge (from the Latin dux, chief) is elected. The millenary adventure of the Repubblica Serenissima has just begun.

But the links with Byzantium have not been severed. The Byzantine fleet rushes to defend the lagoon when Charlemagne's Franks want to enter. A pact is signed and the relative influence of the Eastern Empire is confirmed in the region. The doge established himself on the islands of Rialto and set up a political headquarters there. Venice is born from Rivoaltus. The work to develop the land in a hostile natural environment is titanic: the marshes are drained, the canals are drained and hundreds of wooden piles are planted in the unstable and soft soil to build buildings without sinking.

In 827, the archipelago came under the religious authority of Aquileia, a Frankish city, and again risked falling under the Carolingians. But in 828, two merchants brought back from Alexandria the body of the evangelist Mark hidden under pig quarters. The doge had a chapel built near his palace to store the precious bones. The Réaltines Islands thus gained their religious independence and saved their political autonomy. Saint Mark became the patron saint of the city and the winged lion, emblem of the evangelist, became the symbol of Venice.

Around the 10th century, the first stable forms of government were established. In the year 1000, Doge Pietro II Orseolo, a skilful negotiator and strategist, sent his fleet to defeat the Croatian pirates who had taken possession of the Dalmatian coast. The territories were conquered and the foundation stone of what would become the Venetian maritime empire was laid. A victory commemorated still today by the rite of Sposalizio del Mare. From that moment on, Venice was to assert itself at the heart of international trade.

The emperor of Constantinople asks Venice for help in dealing with the Normans. In exchange for its financial and military support, the lagoon city obtained commercial privileges throughout the Byzantine East. Andros, Lemnos, Modon, Corinth became his trading posts, as well as other territories in the Dardanelles, in the Sea of Marmara and in Constantinople itself. The Serenissima was also granted a series of commercial privileges, including the levying of taxes on the embarkation and disembarkation of goods in its territories, which allowed it to develop trade with the East to the point of a virtual monopoly. By setting up its counters in the four corners of the Mediterranean, it is dedicated to an intense import-export activity.

Wood, iron and copper left Venice, while silk, spices, cotton and sugar flowed from the Orient to Europe via the lagoon city. Until the 14th century, Venice continued to extend its commercial influence in the East: its merchant fleet docked in all the ports of the Adriatic, the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles, the Marmorean Sea, Egypt and Asia Minor. Its ships return laden with the most precious goods and raw materials for its handicrafts, enabling the Republic to export its manufactured products throughout Europe and to invest its capital in prosperous commercial enterprises.

Inauguration of the new Basilica of Saint Mark, following the fire of the previous one in 976; resplendent, it reflects the power and prosperity of the city.

The First Crusade, which introduced Pisa and Genoa to the East, marked the beginning of the rivalry between Venice and these two other maritime republics. From now on, they would face each other from Rhodes to the kingdom of Jerusalem.

Economic expansion has changed the social structure of the city. New merchant, financial, legal and administrative magistrates wanted to govern alongside the old patrician families. In addition, the Venetians were wary of the quasi-monarchical authority of the doge at a time when free cities were flourishing all over Italy. Precautions were taken: on the one hand, the clergy were definitively excluded from the management of public affairs, and on the other hand, the Great Council would henceforth assist the doge. In addition to this, other consultative bodies were added, the Small Council of six councillors (one per sestiere) and the Council of Forty, to ensure the collegiality of power.

Taking advantage of the weakening of Constantinople, Doge Enrico Dandolo asked the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, as payment for the fleet provided, to besiege the city before attacking Jerusalem. Constantinople was defeated and looted (the famous St. Mark's horses and other works of art poured into Venice) and the Republic recovered more than a quarter and a half of the defunct Byzantine Empire, including the Ionian Islands and Crete. Power in the Mediterranean was thus consolidated. However, this expansion will have only one time: the Genoese retaliate by allying themselves with the fallen Byzantines and succeed in recovering part of the Venetian territories. Throughout the second half of the 13th century, Genoese and Venetians clashed in four naval wars. In spite of Venice's defeat at Curzola in 1298 against the Genoese galleys, none of the adversaries definitively took the advantage.

Venice adopts its own currency, the gold ducat, of the same weight and title as the Florence florin. It also gives itself a stable, homogeneous political class: only members of families registered in the Golden Book will henceforth be admitted to the highest administrative offices. In 1310, the doge was almost overthrown: the creation of the all-powerful Council of Ten was necessary, with a secret police force and indicators.

Prisoner of the Genoese, following the Venetian naval defeat of Curzola in 1298, Marco Polo (1254-1324) was held until the following year in Genoese jails. To keep himself busy, he dictated his memoirs to a companion in captivity: Rustician of Pisa. The resulting story is called Milione, The Devisement of the World, a legendary picture of the young merchant's journey to the East, which will never cease to dazzle Europe over the centuries. Marco Polo left Venice for the Orient in 1271, following his father and uncle, rich adventurous merchants, who on a first trip had already been guests of the Great Khan Kubilay. The journey lasted four years, entirely by land: the travellers went north as far as Armenia, crossed present-day Georgia, and then branched off southwards, joining the Persian Gulf. After that, they return to the traditional route of the Silk Road caravans, a mythical trail that winds its way through the mountains of Central Asia, passing through the deserts, to the first Chinese city, Ghanzhou, where they stop for a year. The journey resumes when Kubilay Khan sends an escort to guide the travellers to his summer residence in Shangdu, north-east of Beijing: they arrive there in 1275. The reception of the Venetians was lavish. The Khan asks the three men questions about the morals and science of the West, listens attentively to their answers, is told about their journey and, above all, befriends Marco. So while his uncle and father do business, the young man goes on missions that take him to Tibet, South China and Burma. For three years, he became an assistant to the governor of a province. In 1291, the three merchants left China by sea, not reaching Venice until 1295.

The Serenissima was plagued by a plague that swept away half of its inhabitants, causing a serious economic crisis. Venice loses half of its population. The King of Hungary takes Dalmatia from it. The lords of Padua and Ferrara and especially the powerful dukes of Milan, the Visconti, became more threatening.

The Genoese fleet, jealous of Venice's maritime supremacy, entered its lagoon and seized Chioggia; a desperate outburst by the armies of the Serenissima led to a peace in Turin in 1381 that confirmed its supremacy. In spite of the treaty in its favour, Genoa, exhausted by this age-old conflict, would never again represent a danger to Venice.

With a stable regime and enriched by international trade, Venice became one of the most sumptuous cities in Europe. Thousands of piles were planted in the marshes to create artificial soil on which the entire surface of the buildings still rests. At the height of its military power, the Republic can claim to invade territories on dry land. At the end of the 14th century, Venice launched a policy of gradual conquest that took it as far as the borders of the Duchy of Milan. Treviso and the surrounding territories were conquered in 1339, and from 1404 onwards Venice expanded inland. Administratively, to the Stato da mar - the maritime empire formed by the Venetian colonies in the Mediterranean - was added the Stato da terra, the fruit of the Republic's advances in Northern Italy.

Despite pressure from the Turks who took Constantinople (1453), Venice also continued to extinguish its empire in the Mediterranean. Taking advantage of the retreat of the Genoese, it was the preserve of the Adriatic, which was long called the Pond of Venice. Corfu falls in 1386, the Albanian coasts are subjected a little later and Dalmatia is definitively reconquered between 1409 and 1420. Although it undergoes new Turkish defeats in 1499 and 1503, Venice extends its domination to Cyprus (1489).

Taking advantage of the upheavals caused by the descent of French armies into Italy, Venice attempts to control the ports of Puglia and to extend its power over Pisa and the Papal Romagna. Expansionist aims that frighten the sovereigns of Europe and the Italian states. United in the League of Cambrai, they go to war against Venice. Defeated at Agnadello 1509, Venice lost almost all its territories on dry land. It took them back in 1516 with the Peace of Noyon thanks to the support of Pope Julius II, but the beginning of the end has begun.

From now on Venice will opt for a cautious neutrality. The golden century of the city can then begin: after Rome and Florence, Venice becomes the third centre of the Italian Renaissance. Heir to the Byzantine culture, the city of the Doges became a leading cultural city where fine arts, philosophy, cartography, Greek, law, medicine and chemistry were taught. Venetian painters produced innumerable canvases and frescoes that adorn the palaces. In the 16th century, Giorgione, Titian, Jacopo Tintoretto and Veronese made Venice the artistic city par excellence. The Brenta Valley is adorned with magnificent villas, while in Venice itself the doge Andrea Gritti is aiming to build a new Rome with the help of the architects Sansovino and Palladio.

At the same time, however, the Stato a Mar is faltering: the Turks are taking over the islands of the Aegean Sea one by one. Uscoccan corsairs attacked Venetian ships as far as the Adriatic. Venice is ruined in war expenses, the State goes into debt and raises heavy taxes. The city took its revenge on the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where it played a decisive role alongside Spain and the Papacy. A resounding victory that did not prevent the loss of Cyprus and the withdrawal of its possessions in the Mediterranean. The plague epidemic from 1575 to 1577 killed 50,000 people and further weakened the Serenissima's unstable power.

The economic crisis from 1620 and the great plague of 1630 (further weakening an economy already burdened by war expenses) marked the beginning of a real decline. Wiping away defeats one after the other on land, Venice also exhausted itself at sea. Economically, one must now reckon with the French, Dutch and English commercial competition and the emergence of large European companies. The repercussions of this loss of speed provoked clan struggles. Political and social organisation is in crisis. The Serenissima, once the centre of the world, is retrogressing to the rank of regional power.

During the French Revolution, Venice did not take sides and remained neutral. The timid reform policies of the second half of the 18th century will not have time to bear fruit. The Republic will be swept away in the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1796 Bonaparte suddenly entered the Veneto region to fight the Austrians. Under threat, the Maggior Consiglio voted to end the Republic. At the Treaty of Campoformio, the French abandoned Venice to Austria, whose armies entered the city in January 1798. Napoleon returned as Emperor and King of Italy in 1806, imposing heavy taxation and mass levies on the French army. Numerous lootings, particularly of works of art, were perpetrated throughout the city.

During the Restoration, the Veneto was under Austrian rule for 50 years. In 1848, the severe Austrian tutelage provoked an uprising led by the lawyer Daniele Manin and the writer Nicolo Tomaseo, who called for the unity of Italy. Very quickly the dissidents were arrested and martial law in the city led to the most severe repression.

The Italian Wars of Independence drive the Austrians from the Peninsula. Veneto was given to France on October 19, 1866. A referendum was immediately organised and the Venetians voted overwhelmingly in favour of the attachment of the Savoy to Italy.

Numerous efforts are being made to give a new impetus to Venice by developing the port and the industrial zones of Mestre and Marghera which are developing to become antennas of the lagoon city. The Lido opened its seaside infrastructures and major events such as the Biennale (1895) revitalized the cultural life of the city.

It wasn't until the 1960s that the Veneto regained its momentum. Thanks to the new European and world trade openings, the industrious character of the Venetians, the dynamism of entrepreneurs, mainly in the fields of mechanics, wood, furniture, clothing, goldsmith's trade, optics and wines, the Veneto regained a leading position in the international economy.

Yet life in Venice is becoming difficult. The city's economy is now based only on the tertiary sector. The price of housing is becoming prohibitive and the lack of local shops makes supply difficult. The population is ageing and declining, and migration to Mestre and Marghera is taking the form of a haemorrhage. The balance of the lagoon is disturbed, the phenomenon of acqua alta takes on worrying dimensions. The heritage is deteriorating under the effect of pollution and excessive traffic on the canals. The case of Venice ends up alerting international opinion. A special law (1973) was passed, releasing billions of liras to try to safeguard it.

More than ever a museum-city that has rejected productive activities on its periphery, the city has therefore bet on tourism by creating events of international scope, such as the Biennale or the Mostra del Cinema. Today Venice has less than 54,000 inhabitants, compared to 175,000 in the early 1950s! At the same time, nearly 30 million tourists visit Venice every year. Today the government is trying to repair the damage caused by mass tourism, so that the lagoon city does not become a large amusement park. Among the only cities in the world to have remained miraculously intact, the lagoon city is now working to safeguard its heritage and its environment on a daily basis against polluting industries and more than ever against rising water levels.

On September 25, 2022, Italian voters were called to the polls to elect their representatives to the Camere dei Deputati, the national Chamber of Deputies. In the local elections, Martina Semenzato, a candidate from a political coalition comprising the right (Forza Italia) and the far-right Fratelli d'Italia party, which elected Giorgia Meloni to the presidency of the Italian Council, came out on top (with 42% of the vote). In Venice, the alliance between the Democratic Party, the Greens and Civic Commitment, a movement represented at national level by former minister Luigi di Maio, came second in these elections, with Venetian Maria-Teresa Menotto winning 33% of the vote.

The municipality of Venice has been led since 2015 by Luigi Brugnaro, a right-wing politician, entrepreneur and leader of a famous basketball club. The mayor of the City of the Doges was re-elected in 2020. Next local elections in 2025.