ASIANOVERLAND.NET KATHMANDU TO LONDON  DAY 156/68: VENICE, ITALY

 24 November, 1980

We stay in Venice at Camping Fusina, across the lagoon from the ancient “floating” city of Venice, and a “home away from home” for Top Deck crew, and probably all camping tourists. The BBQ’d spare ribs in the camp restaurant are to die for, we all drink too much, especially Raki while it is flamed with a match for a towering inferno around your mouth (and beard!!), and while we visit Venice on day trips, the  Camping Fusina staff make the T Shirts the punters design for their own individual trip momentos.

In the Middle Ages, Venice became wealthy through its control of trade between Europe and the Middle East, and expanded into the Adriatic Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.

Venice was involved in the Crusades almost from the very beginning; 200 Venetian ships assisted in capturing the coastal cities of Syria after the First Crusade. In 1110, a Venetian fleet of 100 ships tassisted Baldwin I of Jerusalem in capturing the city of Sidon, and in 1123 the Venetians were granted virtual autonomy in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

In the 12th century, the Republic of Venice built a large national shipyard that is known as the Venetian Arsenal. Building new and powerful fleets, the republic took control over the eastern Mediterranean. The Venetians also gained extensive trading privileges in the Byzantine Empire, and their ships provided the Byzantine Empire with a navy.

Venice was asked to provide transportation for the Fourth Crusade, and the crusade was diverted to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.  The Crusaders were offered 10,000 Byzantine soldiers to help fight in the Crusade, 500 knights in the Holy Land, and the service of the Byzantine navy (20 ships) in transporting the Crusader army to Egypt, as well as money to pay off the Crusaders' debt to the Republic of Venice with 200,000 silver marks.

The Venetians and French crusaders sieged Constantinople, which was captured and sacked in 1204. Venetians saved from the sack several artistic works, such as the famous four bronze horses, bringing them to Venice, where they are a feature (pictured).

Piazza San Marco is dominated at its eastern end by St Mark's Basilica, which dates back to the later part of the 11th century, influenced in its architecture and design by the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The gold ground mosaics that now cover almost all the upper areas of the interior took centuries to complete. In the 13th century the external height of the domes was greatly increased to try to emulate the Hagia Sophia dome, by hollow drums raised on a wooden framework and covered with metal.

Many of St Mark’s rich artifacts and relics were plundered from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE, including many artifacts from the Hagia Sophia. The famous Madonna Nicopeia, also known as the icon of the Virgin Nicopeia, was also looted, and was one of the city's most precious icons, carried into battle by various Byzantine emperors. The icon was brought to Venice by Enrico Dandolo (1205 CE), and the altar of the Virgin Nicopeia remains in St. Mark's Basilica. To the Venetians, the icon was a symbol that God had transferred His blessing from Constantinople to Venice by military conquest.

The piazza’s western facade features great arches and marble decoration, the Romanesque carvings around the central doorway, and the four horses which preside over the whole piazza - potent symbols of the pride and power of Venice. The Genoese in 1379 said that there could be no peace between the two cities until these four horses had been bridled. Four hundred years later, Napoleon, after he had conquered Venice, had them taken down and shipped to Paris.

As a result of the partition of the Byzantine Empire following the sacking of Constantinople, Venice gained strategic territories in the Aegean Sea (nearly half of the Byzantine Empire), including the island of Crete. The Aegean islands formed the Venetian Duchy of the Archipelago.

The Republic of Venice also signed a trade treaty with the Mongol Empire in 1241.

The Republic of Venice’s decline started in December 1714, when the Ottoman Turks declared war on the Republic. At that time, Venice's major overseas possession, the "Kingdom of the Morea" (Greece’s Peloponnese), was "without any of those supplies which are so desirable even in countries where aid is near at hand which are not liable to attack from the sea."

By 1796, the Republic of Venice could no longer defend itself. Although the Republic still possessed a fleet of 13 ships, only a handful were ready for sea, and the army consisted of only a few brigades of Dalmatian mercenaries.

In 1796 Piedmont fell to Napoleon’s army, which then crossed the frontiers of neutral Venice in pursuit of the Austrians. By the end of the year, the French troops were occupying the Venetian state and confronting the Austrians. In the subsequent secret agreement between Napoleon and the Austrians, the Austrians took the Venetian possessions as the price of peace.

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