104 VENICE The city of Venice resulted from the settlement of smaller islands located in an estuarine delta that is situated at the mouths of a number of rivers. The lagoon is marked off from the Adriatic Sea; an arm of the River Brenta formed what would later become the Grand Canal. According to a legend that only emerged in theMiddle Ages, the city was founded by refugees on 25March 421, although settlements had existed on the islands since the Etruscan and Roman eras. The city remained under Byzantine administration until the 8th century. The quest for political autarky resulted in a complex – and complicated – system of government. The large, prominent patrician families divided power amongst themselves, always with the aim of preventing a single doge or family from controlling the city’s destiny. Venice’s ideal location at the intersection of trade routes, combined with its flourishing shipbuilding industry, culminated in the ascendance of the Serenissima Repubblica di SanMarco (Most Serene Republic of Saint Mark), a colonial trade and maritime power that dominated large areas of the Adriatic and Greece, as well as coastal regions along the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, until its collapse in 1797. All of this increased the wealth of Venice, which became the cultural hub of northern Italy, and a pivot point between “orient” and “occident.” The city’s most prestigious centres of power were Saint Mark’s Square with the Basilica, named after the city’s patron saint, the Doge’s Palace, and the Procuratie.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNjA1