Venezia serenissima - most romantic city in the world

city of the mind
by childlike fantasies and
worries exhausted
of my mendacious mind
at nothing laughing
and for the flower crying
'cause it dies
not knowing how to save it
so nothing remains for this
fickle mind of mine but
to forget now and hereafter
— as it did before —
and thus continue on its own
to rhyme
lulled by the sea like a fish
languidly

—by Paola Bruna

This city, which has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions over the years was founded in the Fifth Century when the first church was built there, the church of San Jacopo on the island of Rialto. The islands on which the city stands between the mouths of the rivers Po and Piave were inhabited in Roman times by fisher folk called incolae lacunae ("lagoon dwellers").

Venice, the one and only
miracle and wonder of nature.
This high ruler of the sea,
lofty virgin, inviolate and pure,
without equivalent or peer in the world,
this is what you should have praised,
this gentle land, in which you were born,
and where I, too, thank God, was born;.- Veronica Franco, the most famous of the Venetian courtesans of the 16th Century.

"So he again set eyes on the most astounding landing, that blinding composition of fantastic architecture, which the Republic has to offer the awestruck looks of the approaching seafarer: the light grandeur of the Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, the columns topped with the lion and the saint close to the shore, the flauntingly projecting flank of St Mark’s, the view of St Mark’s Clock, and thus contemplating he thought that arriving in Venice from the train station was like entering a palace through the servants’ entrance and that one should always, like himself, travel across the ocean to the most improbable of cities." - From Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1912).

St Mark's Square has been called (by either Alfred de Musset or Napoleon) the "Drawing room of Europe" and is the political and social hub of Venice. Perhaps it is significant that it is also the lowest part of Venice and thus subject to periodic flooding!

This flooding occurs at the times of the acqua alta (high water) when, due to a combination of meteorological factors and human intervention, the water of the Adriatic Sea floods at abnormal levels into the lagoon.

At the eastern end of the Piazza is the famous Basilica of St Mark, first consecrated on 8 October 1071. The Basilica is noted for its opulent Byzantine architecture and is also called Chiesa d'Oro (Church of Gold).

Next to the Basilica is the perhaps even more famous Campanile. This tower was completed in its familiar form in 1513, but underwent many restorations over the years to repair damage cause by fires and earthquakes.

Then in the morning of 14 July 1902 the whole thing came crashing down, leaving a pile of rubble and one dead cat! Rebuilding started almost immediately and the new tower, built to the exact specifications of the old, but with internal reinforcements designed to prevent any future collapse, was inaugurated on 25 April 1902, 1000 years to the day after the laying of the foundations of the original tower.

The Campanile is also famous as the site of the demonstration given by Galileo of his telescope to the lawmakers of Venice on 25 August 1609.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs,

A palace and a prison on each hand:

I saw from out the wave her structures rise

As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:

A thousand years their cloudy wings expand

Around me, and a dying Glory smiles

O'er the far times, when many a subject land

Looked to the wingéd Lion's marble piles,

Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!

  - George Gordon, Lord Byron, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

If Venice is the most romantic city in the world, then the Bridge of Sighs is its romantic heart, thanks largely to that "romantic hero" poet Byron, who first gave the bridge that nickname in his long narrative (and possibly semi-autobiographical) poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" which he wrote between 1809 and 1811.

The bridge itself was built in 1602 to link the old prisons of the city to the interrogation rooms of the Doge's palace. The local legend had it that the view from the barred windows of the bridge were the last of Venice that a condemned prisoner would see, causing the sighs. In fact the bridge was built after the time of the Inquisition in Venice and the prisoners who would have been taken across it would have most likely been common criminals.

Another local legend is that if lovers kiss on a gondola under the bridge at sunset they will have a long and happy marriage.

Bult between 1473 and 1479 this palazzo is one of the most beautiful of the Gothic palazzos in Venice. It was built by Nicolò Soranzo, and, after changing hands a few times, became the property of the Van Axeil family from Holland in 1628. In 1919 it was bought by Lord Dino Barozzi.

The postcard shows the land gate to the Van Axel, above which is a very detailed Coat of Arms of the Van Axel family, unfortunately not really visible.

The extra floor which can be seen above the gate was already there in the 15th Century.

The most recent owners of the palazzo are the Marsoni family who acquired it in 1950.

The Grand Canal is the S-shaped, 3.8 kilometre long "Main Street" of Venice. It is lined with some 170 buildings dating from the 13th Century to the 18th Century, reflecting the glory that was the Republic of Venice.

The Grand Canal is 30 to 90 metres wide and carries the buld of traffic within Venice.

The Palazzo Franchetti was originally built in 1565 and has been refurbished several times through the succeeding years.

In the 1840s Archduke Frederick of Austria undertook some major restoration work and in 1857 the Count of Chambord bought the property and also had major work done on it.

Baron Raimondo Franchetti bought the palazzo in 1878 whose family sold it in 1922 to the Istituto Federale di Credito per il Risorgimento delle Venezie. The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Artitook over the building in 1999 and holds cultural events there.

The Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute was planned as an offering after Venice was hit in 1629 by an outbreak of the plague. The Venetian Senate parades to the church each year on 21 November, the Festa della Madonna della Salute, in a procession from St Mark's.

Opposite St Mark's across the St Mark's Basin is the Island of St George (Isola di San Giorgio). A Benedictine Monastery was established on the island in 982. All buildings on the island were destroyed in an earthquake in 1223.

In 1566 a new church building was begun on the island to a design by Palladio. The church was only completed in 1610, long after Palladio's death.

Opposite St Mark's across the St Mark's Basin is the Island of St George (Isola di San Giorgio). A Benedictine Monastery was established on the island in 982. All buildings on the island were destroyed in an earthquake in 1223.

In 1566 a new church building was begun on the island to a design by Palladio. The church was only completed in 1610, long after Palladio's death.

The church of San Geremia ws built in 1753 on a site which had had a church on it since the 11th Century.

The present church was designed by Carlo Corbellini.The facade dates from 1861.

The bell tower is most likely a 12th Century edifice.

The church houses the purported ramins of St Lucy of Syracuse. In 1981 St Lucy was "kidnapped" from the church, but was returned a few months later without any ransom being paid.

"In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more,

And silent rows the songless gondolier;

Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,

And music meets not always now the ear:

Those days are gone--but Beauty still is here;

States fall, arts fade--but Nature doth not die,

Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear,

The pleasant place of all festivity,

The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!" - from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by George Gordon, Lord Byron.

Venice, because of its beauty and interesting location, has attracted artists of all kinds down the centuries.

Of musicians, perhaps the most famous is the so-called "Red Priest", Antonio Vivaldi, who born there in 1678. Many of his works were composed there while he was master of violin at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy).

From about 1711 Vivaldi started to travel in Europe, but was always connected to the Ospedale. He died, a pauper, in Vienna, in 1741.

Even before Vivaldi's birth the great Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi, who was born in Cremona, moved to Venice where he was music master at St Mark's. Monteverdi died in Venice in 1643.

Many writers also have been inspired by Venice, both native born and foreign. Veronica Franco, a famous courtesan, wrote poetry and letters that have great charm. Her interesting life was described in the biography The Honest Courtesan by Margaret F. Rosenthal (1992). This book was subsequently made into a movie called "Dangerous Beauty (or "A Destiny of her Own" in some countries).

German author Thomas Mann visited Venice on holiday with his wife in 1911 and published Death in Venice in 1912. While the principle character, Aschenbach, is based on the composer Gustav Mahler, the events of the novella reflect something of Mann's struggle with his own homosexuality and his obsession, while in Venice, with a young Polish boy Baron Władysław Moes.

The long list of painters associated with Venice starts with the great Andrea Mantegna in the 15th Century, and continues with Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione and Titian.

Except where otherwise stated, all the images in this Hub are scans of postcards in my posession.Unfortunately none of them has a postmark and so I can only guess when they were produced, which I would guess would have been the first few years of the 20th Century, certainly before the First World War of 1914 - 1918.

The postcards are part of the vast collection assembled by my Great-Aunt Hetty McGregor. She died in 1977 just before her 101st birthday, having lived in the same house in Cape Town for much of that time. She never married, having been thought "too frail" to do so in her youth!