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Venice is built on alluvial mud, and most buildings in the city were (and mostly still are) supported by large numbers of timber piles driven into the mud. Above a stone platform sitting on these, the normal building material is brick, although the Renaissance facades were usually faced with Istrian stone , a fine limestone that is not strictly ...
Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading network. Very unusually for medieval architecture, the style is at its most characteristic in ...
Despite these efforts, over the centuries as the mean sea level gradually rose and the foundations of many buildings settled further into the mudflats, the Venetians also gradually raised their islands, as verified by the deepest archaeological layer in St. Mark's Square, which is located approximately 10 feet below the present pavement.
The early Venetian constructors used building techniques that included using impermeable stone supported by wooden rafts and timber piles. [2] The timber piles did not rot because they were set into the mud at the bottom of the lagoon which prevented oxygen and harmful microbes from reaching them. [2]
Velma (plural velme) is a Venetian dialect term derived from "melma" (mud). It is also used by Italian scientists to refer to lagunar mudflats (also called tidal flats), such as those found in the Lagoon of Venice. They are areas of shallow lagunar bottoms which are normally submerged, but emerge at low tides.
The buildings were frequently constructed by the Capitano del Populo of each city, an organization that represented the guilds and the wealthy merchants of the city. Major examples included the Capitano del Popolo in Orvieto , the Palazzo Communale at Piacenza , and the massive Palazzo del Capitano, or Bargello , in Florence . [ 9 ]
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Map of the Venetian Lagoon. MOSE is part of a General Plan of Interventions to safeguard Venice and the lagoon. The project was begun in 1987 by the Ministry of Infrastructure through the Venice Water Authority (the Ministry's operational arm in the lagoon) and the concessionary Consorzio Venezia Nuova.