DK Travel : Venice : History & Culture

Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Jews

The Spanish Inquisition triggered the move here for many Jews expelled from other European countries.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The story goes that this German literary giant (1749–1832) had his first ever view of the sea from Venice’s Campa-nile. Attracted by the lands south of the Alps, his first visit was an experience of personal renewal, the account published as Italian Journey (1786–8).
John Cabot

Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto, or John Cabot (1450–99), and his sons were authorized by Henry VII of England to search for new lands with the aim of furthering trade. Believing himself on the northeast coast of Asia, he discovered Newfoundland in Canada and claimed it for England, opening up cod fishing.
John Ruskin

The meticulous if opinionated labour of love of this British art critic (1819–1900), The Stones of Venice , was the first work to focus the attention of visitors on the city’s unique architectural heritage and Gothic style, as opposed to the art. The book was largely the outcome of an 1849 visit.
Lord Byron

Eccentricities such as a menagerie of foxes and monkeys, not to mention swimming feats in the Grand Canal, made the English Romantic poet (1788–1824) something of a legend during his three-year sojourn here. His Venice-inspired work included The Two Foscari and the fourth canto of his autobiographical work Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage .
Luigi Nono

This musician (1924–90) made milestone progress in the field of electronic music, and an archive named after him was set up in Venice in 1993. A committed Communist, his works were often provocative.
Marco Polo

Legendary Cathay and the kingdom of the mighty Kublai Khan took pride of place in explorer Marco Polo’s best-selling account of his 20-year odyssey to the Far East, Il milione . Son of a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo (1254–1324) is responsible for the introduction of pasta and window blinds to the western world.
Mercerie

The expensive elegance of Venice is most evident on this main thoroughfare linking Rialto and Piazza San Marco. Mercerie means haberdasher’s, although these days it is the realm of the designer fashion outlets who are able to afford the sky-high rents. Just below the ornate Torre dell’ Orologio archway is a sculpted female figure commemorating a housewife who lived here rentfree as a reward for inadvertently knocking a mortar into the street, killing a revolutionary leader and thus halting the short-lived Baiamonte Tiepolo revolt in 1310.
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale

Gigantic ferns, weird fish and an ancestor of the crocodile, all in fossilized form from the Eocene era, 50 million years ago are treasures hailing from Bolca in the Lessini foothills. They testify to the tropical shallows that spread across the area prior to the formation of the Alps.
Museo Fortuny

Flamboyant Spanish artist and theatrical stage designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871–1950) adopted Venice as his home and muse, and transformed this ponderous 15th-century palace in Gothic-Venetian style into an exotic atelier. Although restoration is on-going, a number of rooms are open for temporary exhibitions. In the near future visitors will be able to admire Fortuny’s sumptuous velvets, renowned the world over, his famous pleated silk dresses, lamps, paintings, a remarkable stage curtain and fascinating 19th-century photographs.