The history of Venice is fascinating and longer than its canals. As a center of enormous and extensive trade, Venice was a great sea power with trade relations with the Mediterranean region and the Far East, holding a supreme position till the Age of Discovery. The artists and artisans of Venice were influenced by the talent from the Orient and they infused this intricate art into their divine creations especially into their traditional chief occupations of glass-making and textile industry.
As the mists of time clear with a glimpse of Torcello, a marshy islet where the first settlers found safety from barbarians, the earliest history of Venice begins as a home at that time to about 20,00 people. Veneto as the mainland was once called in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, was a primitive settlement with refugees who built rafts with wooden poles. They used wood driven into the sub soil to build the foundations for the floating palaces. The curtain of myths surrounding the birth of Venice on 25th March 421, is still shrouded with a shadowed past. With settlers making their home on Rivo Alto, known as Rialto, the highest point of the lagoon, Venice emerged as a republic. Venice’s first doges were elected in 697, as the city evolved with the Byzantine Empire, formerly the eastern branch of the Roman Empire. Coming into prominence in 828, Venice became home to the earthly remains of St. Mark who was buried in St. Mark’s Basilica by merchants in 828, with the Basilica being consecrated in 1094.
Pope Urban II's First Crusade of 1095, and the Fourth Crusade of 1202, alternately saw Venice decked with exquisite booty with economy on the rise. The Great Council comprising of powerful and rich families commanded authority forming a government. But soon even the success of the battle of Chioggia in 1380, was decimated by the Black death in 1348, and as the Turks plundered the city taking Cyprus in 1570 and Crete in 1669, plague struck again and Venice’s new-found confidence crashed as disaster struck in the form of fire at the doge’s palace destroying valuable art and treasures. With the arrival of Napoleon in 1797, Venice fell into the hands of the Austrians. But Venice with her plucky confidence joined the band of rebels in 1848, as the movement for Italian unification was contagious with the final outcome of Venice uniting with the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
Venice now with its new make-over, boasted of a civilized appearance with the facilities of convenience. Mussolini built a road bridge parallel to the railway bridge and business and industry thrived in ‘greater’ Venice. Though a victim of the World War II, Venice reappeared unhurt and the post war years brought a host of job opportunities as industry expanded. With problems created both by natural calamities and man, Venice stabilized herself and her beloved architecture even through the fear of the city sinking, the ‘Serenissima’ royal title has made Venice even more mystical, alluring with her essence of romance.