Venice and its Lagoon
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How it came to be
In the 5th century, mainlanders fleeing invasions settled on sandbanks in the lagoon such as Torcello. Tradition dates the city's founding to 25 March 421, when its first church is said to have been built, though no record confirms it.
Spread across 118 small islands, Venice elected its first doge around 697 and was a maritime power by the 10th century. The republic ended when Napoleon conquered it in 1797, and Austria took the city that year.
Travellers who came here
- 1786-09
He arrived on 28 September by the public boat down the Brenta from Padua; on 5 October he visited the Arsenal and went on board an eighty-four-gun ship.
- 1867-07
One of the cities where he stopped for a day or two on the rail journey from Genoa. The book gives two chapters to the gondolas and the Square of St Mark.
- 1873-05
They arrived from Rome on 27 May and visited St Mark's and its bell tower. The next day some members saw documents in the State Archives about the Japanese embassies that had come in 1585 and 1615.
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