Venezia

Venezia (locally called Venesia)¹ is a city of 261 thousand² within its own province-level officially defined metropolitan area of 847 thousand³ whose center is on a set of islands in an island-studded lagoon connected to the Adriatic Sea in northeastern Italia.⁴ The city rose to great importance after it sacked other Christian cities as asides to nominal holy wars (crusades) against Moslems. At that time it was a city state that called itself Serenìsima Repùblica Vèneta. It gradually lost its eastern possessions, and its maritime supremacy faded as other Italian ports arose in the 18th century. The republic was conquered by Erherzegtum Österreich (the Hapsburg Empire) by the end of that century, and became part of the Kingdom of Italia in the early 19th.

The tallest non-industrial building is the the Campanile di San Marco, rebuilt in 1912 (321 feet). Another famous building is the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace).⁵ UNESCO honors the city and the settlements throughout the lagoon, for the fine secular and religious buildings and monuments, for riches such as the bronze horses stolen from Kωνσταντινoύπoλις (Kōnstantinoupolis, now İstanbul) and for the mundane architecture that fronts the canals and rivers.⁶ Other lagoon cities are: Chioggia (population 50,000, ⁷ locally called Cióxa); Jesolo (population 24,000⁸); Mira (population 39,000⁹); and San Donà di Piave (population 42,000,¹⁰ locally just San Donà). Mira is particularly known for a villa designed by Andrea Palladio, part of another World Heritage Site focused on Vicenza. In the city proper, the Grand Canal is one of the nation's tourist attractions.¹¹

Its airport is one of the nation's busiest.¹²

Historical maps

External references

Grand Canal, Venezia city and province-level metropolitan city, Veneto Region, Italia

Footnotes

1. Venice in English and Venedig in German.
2. 2011 figure from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Italy, accessed December 25, 2017.
3. 2011 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_City_of_Venice, accessed December 25, 2017.
4. Italy in English.
5. Emporis.com, accessed December 25, 2017. The Large Flarestick of Port Maghera Refinery is 545 feet tall and another flarestick and a chimney on that site are also taller than the bell tower as is a chimney at the Fusina Power Station.
6. UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010).
7. 2015 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chioggia, accessed December 25, 2017.
8. 2012 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesolo, accessed February 16, 2017.
9. 2016 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira,_Veneto, accessed February 16, 2017.
10. 2011 figure from the side bar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Don%C3%A0_di_Piave, accessed February 16. 2017.
11. http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-italy/3/, accessed February 16, 2017.
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Italy, accessed February 16, 2017. My criterion for inclusion: above 3 million total passengers.
13. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of the World's Largest Cities." It was the tenth largest city in the world in 1300 CE and the largest in what is now Italia.