Walking in Venice you see amazing palaces rich in history, you see the canals, the boats and all the wonderful environment of the city, but have you ever asked yourself how Venice was built??

It’s unbelievable !!!

The foundations of Venice’s palaces follow the same system of indirect foundation: think of a swamp ; you have to solidify the zone and then put wooden pointed knotty and short poles until you find a hard and compact layer of clay in the soil, called caranto which is located at a dozen meters below the surface soil layer of the lagoon.

The piling of the poles is carried out according to multiple alignment, along the strip where the perimeter walls will be built, supporting most of the building.

But how many poles are there in the Venice foundations?

The answer is simple : millions of poles!

And where did the Venetians get these poles? It was necessary to deforest many areas of Cadore and Istria.

Venetians chose trunks of firs, oaks and larches that arrived through the rivers in Venice.

But…what about palaces and bell towers that are crooked? Have you ever seen them?

They are crooked because sometimes there was subsidence of this system of balance.

But how old is this system?

Many poles were put down, more or less, in the age of Columbus and the discovery of America (about 500 years ago!!!) and they are still in good condition… how is it possible?

The secret is in the mud : bacteria that decompose wood are unable to act because the oxygen is missing. So mud has protected poles from bacteria and water corrosion.

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If you have questions write us to venicebyvenetians@gmail.com

See you soon,

Davide