Locations - Venice
The salt breeze, the white moaning sea-birds, the masses of black weed separating and disappearing gradually, in knots of heaving shoal, under the advance of the steady tide, all proclaimed it to be indeed the ocean on whose bosom the great city rested so calmly;…
– John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice Vol. II, The Sea Stories, chapter. 1, §1 [written sometime between 1851 and 1853]
A window display, Disney Store in Venice
Photo: The Right Angle Journal
It would be hard to contemplate the marriage of water and architecture without considering Venice. Unlike the world’s other canal cities, Venice is not only punctuated by water, it is entirely bracketed by it. In fact, this “Floating City” gives every appearance of being supported by water. As we know, this support, after 1700 years, appears to be failing. If Venice were actually resting on the tide, as Ruskin observed, it would rise and fall with the changing water level. But it rests on wood and stone foundations, steadily eroded by the agitation of cruise ships, the sinking of wells for industrial purposes and the constant assault of time. While the city slowly sinks, the water rises, flooding walkways, plazas and precious buildings.
The inundation of Venice continues and intensifies. In 2019, the high waters peaked at 1.87 metres (7 cm less than the 50-year record set in 1966). It has been reported that had the much-anticipated flood barrier system been completed as scheduled in 2018, the estimated €1 billion in damage might have been avoided. No one seems to know when the system will be completed, if ever. And will it be in time to meet the increasing challenges of global warming?
But water isn’t the only thing that is inundating Venice. The unique pedestrian-only environment has always attracted tourists, but the current onslaught is more serious, due to its volume and its means of arrival: cruise ships that dump large volumes of day-visitors onto the crowded streets while they endanger the very foundations of Venetian architecture. Meanwhile, opportunistic vendors swamp the local economy, displacing traditional Venetian artisans and merchants, with a steady stream of cheap, foreign-made tourist items.
Over its 17 centuries, Venice has weathered many challenges – occupations, attacks and sieges by Romans Visigoths, Huns, Lombards, Ottoman Turks, Napoleon’s armies, the British Royal Air force and modern tourists – and it has always prevailed. It’s hard to imagine that it will be subdued by its current struggles.
Still, it might be a good idea to visit soon…and try to tread softly.
At high water, no land is visible for many miles to the north or south of Venice, except in the form of small islands crowned with towers or gleaming with villages.
– John Ruskin, ibid.