100 Places To Remember: Venice, Italy
Geschreven op 19-2-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Natuur
City on the Water. Packed with Gothic, Byzantine and Renaissance palaces, Venice is an artistic and architectural masterpiece, famed as one of the most extraordinary and beautiful cities in the world.
Founded in the 5th century, Venice is spread over 118 small islands in a marshy lagoon in the north-eastern corner of the Adriatic Sea. In the early Middle Ages, Venice evolved into one of the worlds greatest maritime powers and wealthiest city-states.
The city prospered on trade with the rest of the world for centuries. As evidence of its vast wealth, works of art by great masters adorn even the smallest of the palaces along the canals.
Venice was built on wooden poles hammered deep into the muddy ground. The network of picturesque canals earned it the soubriquet the city on the water. By its very nature, Venice has always been extremely vulnerable to flooding.
Over the centuries, the city has been slowly sinking by 23 cm in the last century alone. In November 1966, the worst flood in recorded history raised the water level 1.94 metres above the norm and caused widespread damage to many historic sites.
To avoid similar incidents in future, a barrier comprising a number of mobile floodgates is now under construction. Known as MOSE (a play on Mosè, the Italian for Moses, who parted the Red Sea), it is designed to withstand a maximum flood of three metres and to safeguard Venice from storms and rising sea levels until the end of the century. At that time or sooner if climate change accelerates faster than predicted new measures will have to be taken to protect this Adriatic gem.
