Venice History

by Philip Greenspun

"Nothing in the story of Venice is ordinary. She was born dangerously, lived grandly, and never abandoned her brazen individualism."

-- James Morris, from the World of Venice (1959)

• 6th Century BC the Veneto occupied by the Euganei and the Veneti (the latter people ultimately gave their name to the region)
• 3rd Century BC Romans conquer the Veneto
• 89 BC inhabitants of the Veneto given full Roman citizenship
• 421 Legendary founding of Venice, by Romans fleeing the Goths
• 621 Work starts on cathedral on Torcello (island in the Venetian lagoon, once a rival to Venice)
• 828 Venetian merchants steal the bones of St. Mark from Alexandria
• 832 First Basilica San Marco consecrated
• 1095 First Crusade; Venice prospers selling ships and supplies
• 1171 The six districts (sestieri) of Venice established
• 1204 By diverting the Fourth Crusade, Venice conquers Byzantium (and its capital, Constantinople). Booty includes the famous four bronze horses of San Marco plus about one million pounds sterling in treasure, seven times the revenue of the kingdom of England at the time. Venice is now the undisputed ruler of the eastern Mediterranean.
• 1310 Council of Ten formed with a constitutional government
• 1325 Names of the city's ruling families are inscribed in the Golden Book
• 1348-9 Plague kills half the city.
• 1380 Venice defeats Genoa in naval battle
• 1498 Vasca da Gama rounds Cape Horn to India, ending Venice's monopoly on trade with the East. Beginning of Venice's decline.
• 1516 Council of Ten locks Jews in the Ghetto
• 1630 Plague cuts population to 100,000

• 1718 End of maritime empire; Venice surrenders Morea to the Turks
• 1797 Napoleon conquers the Veneto, ending 11 centuries of independence. Napoleon lets the Jews out of the Ghetto.
• 1798 Napoleon trades the Veneto to the Austrians for Lombardy; the Austrians stuff the Jews back into the Ghetto
• 1846 Rail causeway links city to mainland.
• 1866 Austrians defeated, Venice becomes part of Italy. Jews let out of Ghetto.
• 1912 Thomas Mann writes Death in Venice
• 1915-18 Venice somewhat damaged in fighting between Austria and Italy
• 1926 Porto Marghera, an industrial park with aluminum smelting, oil refining, and other factories, annexed to the City of Venice. The lagoon is beginning to be lost to landfill.
• World War II The historic center of Venice is mostly left alone by the Germans and Allies.
• 1960 Marco Polo airport built on landfill in the lagoon, part of an entire 25% of the lagoon that had been filled in for industrial purposes. Combined with dredging of channels for big ships, Venice's buffer against tides is weakened.
• 1966 Worst flood in history of city. Streets and houses are submerged to a depth of more than six feet.
• 1995 Venice's population falls to 70,000 with an average age of about 50. Two-thirds of the population of "Greater Venice" now lives in drier houses on the mainland.
• 1996 La Fenice is torched by electricians trying to avoid being fined $500,000 for failure to complete a rewiring job. The opera house was rebuilt and reopened in 2004.