This is the first of a series of five posts about Venice’s canals. We came here to see La Biennale; there is another series of posts about the exhibition, to start on that series click here and here.
Have some music to go with the post …
Canal Grande or the Grand Canal is the main street of Venice (Venezia).
In the shape of an upside-down “S”, it divides the old city into two parts, winding its way through the six sestieri (districts). To me (Chris), Venice resembles the front view of two clasping hands with the right hand on top.
For this trip, we rented an apartment which is located on the “right hand” in sestieri Canneregio, near where the bunch of left finger tips nest into the right palm.
The Grand Canal is about 4 km long, width from 30 to 70 m, and an average depth of 5 m. One end starts near the main railway station (Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia, where we arrived) and it ends near Piazza San Marco (see earlier post here).
The banks of the Grand Canal are lined with more than 170 recognized buildings, most of which date from the 13th to the 18th century. There are many books (touristy or academic) and maps (ancient or modern) showing each building with stories behind its history.
The scale and architecture of the buildings demonstrate the wealth and artistry of the old Republic of Venice. Many are fanciful enough to be called palazzo and are owned by noble Venetian families and rich Italians. Some became fancy hotels.
Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, now housing an Academy of the Sciences (Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti or IVSLA)
In the past, most of the city’s traffic goes along the Canal rather than across it. Until the 19th century, there was only one bridge crossing the canal, the Rialto Bridge.
We will have a future post about the Rialto. At the time we were there, some repairs were being carried out on the bridge.
There are currently three more bridges, the Ponte degli Scalzi, the Ponte dell’Accademia, and the recent Ponte della Costituzione, designed by Santiago Calatrava.
Ponte dell’Accademia – visitors had tried to leave “lover locks” on this bridge but the local authority have managed to prevent that from becoming a thing to do here.
Ponte degli Scalzi
Ponte della Costituzione (The photo below is from WIkipedia)
Along the canal, one can see all the architecture styles that flourished and influenced the Venetians from Medieval 11th century to the Modern era. Because of its long history as a trading post with the east, many elements of eastern architecture had been adopted and merged into a distinct local style.
Venetian Gothic combines the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architectural elements. The style originated in 14th century and examples of the Venetian style are the Doge’s Palace and the Ca’ d’Oro (middle of photo below).
Ca’ d’Oro is one of the older palaces in the city, built between 1428 and 1430 for the Contarini family, who provided Venice with eight Doges (the leaders) between 1043 and 1676.
Palazzo Bembo (below photo, right)
We really liked Venice as there is nothing comparable anywhere in the world. The “Venice and its Lagoon” site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987. To continue with the series, Part 2 is here.