The buildings of this city are built on millions of wooden posts

The fascinating engineering used to build and expand the city of Venice

Esp 1·04·2025 · 23:39 0

Venice, located in the northeast of Italy, is one of the most fascinating, most beautiful and also most visited cities in Europe.

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The city, founded in the 5th century AD, is formed by 170 canals (or "rii" as they are called there) and connected by 340 bridges. More than half of its 414.6 square kilometres of surface area is water, with 156.9 square kilometres of land.

Venetian gondolas with the Rialto Bridge in the background (Photo: Antônia Felipe).

The Republic of Venice was one of the most powerful cities in Europe for centuries, as well as a great commercial power. Among its most famous figures are the merchant Marco Polo (1254-1324), whose travels took him to Central Asia and China; the great composer and Catholic priest Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), world-famous for his series of concerts "The Four Seasons"; the painter Titian (1488-1576), one of the most celebrated artists of the Renaissance; and the painter Tintoretto (1518-1594), a genius in the use of light in his works.

The Grand Canal in Venice (Photo: Edoardo Bortoli).

Venice is itself a masterpiece of engineering, with such admired wonders as the Rialto Bridge, inaugurated in 1591 and still in use (its image heads this entry). But some of Venice's great feats are not visible, since they are located underground in the city. Because it was built in a marshy area, its buildings rest on millions of wooden posts, many of which were originally used centuries ago and are still in good condition.

Centuries-old houses on the Grand Canal in Venice (Photo: Mark Boss).

A few months ago, Primal Space published an excellent report on the genius engineering used to build and expand Venice, going over the history of the city from its origins and some of the ingenious solutions the Venetians found to solve problems that arose as the city grew:

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Main photo: Claudio Schwarz.

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