The houses of Venice

Venice is a great forest upside down !!!!!!!

This is the first thing you absolutely need to know before entering Venice, this will help you understand so many why.

The buildings of Venice were built on a swamp, but how is it possible that after centuries these buildings still stand on stilts? Yes, because Venice is an immense pile dwelling.

In fact if we  turn Venice upside down we would see millions of wooden poles, just like a forest with many trunks without branches.

This is why Venice is unique in the world, it is actually built on stilts.

Do you think that 11,000 poles were planted just to build the Rialto Bridge

The poles of pine, oak or larch, were driven up to 7.5 meters into the bottom of the canal in a mud called caranto, one next to the other.  On top of the poles,  two layers of 5 cm wooden planks were laid on which the stone foundations were then erected.

The poles remained stuck in the caranto in total absence of oxygen, therefore they underwent a process of mineralization that managed to keep them intact for centuries until today.

Sounds impossible, right?

So,  when you see a building that is a little crooked it is possible that part of the foundation has given way under the weight of the building.

Venice we can say …… floats … ..

The  house construction began at the water level . You can see a white stone at the water level. This stone is the Istrian Stone, which was placed between the foundations and the habitable part to prevent humidity from rising from the bottom upwards.

The city was built on more than 100 islands connected by over 400 bridges between them.

This is the first thing to know about Venice, now you can enter but be careful, walk lightly, as if you were walking on a roof of old tiles …….