2983 ITALY (Veneto) - Venetian Arsenal - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

2983 View of the Entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.

The Venetian Arsenal is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian republic's naval power during the middle part of the second millennium AD. It was "one of the earliest large-scale industrial enterprises in history". Its construction began around 1104, and became the largest industrial complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution, spanning about fifteen percent of Venice. It is located in the Castello district of Venice, and it is now owned by the state.

2963 ITALY (Veneto) - National Library of St Mark's - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

The National Library of St Mark's (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana) in Venice, named after St. Mark, the patron saint of the city, is one of the earliest surviving public manuscript depositories in Italy, holding one of the greatest classical texts collections in the world. It is not to be confused with the State Archive of the Republic of Venice, which is housed in a different part of the city. The library was provided with a building in Renaissance style designed by Jacopo Sansovino. The first sixteen arcaded bays of his design were constructed during 1537 to 1553, with work on frescoes and other decorations continuing until 1560.

2841 ITALY (Veneto) - The Torrione in Legnago

Located on the Adige river, about 43km from Verona, Legnago had an important military role since the early Middle Ages. In the 19th century it was one of the Quadrilatero fortresses, the main strongpoint of the Austrian Lombardy-Venetia puppet state during the Italian Wars of Independence. The present fortifications were planned and made in 1815, the older defences having been destroyed by Napoleon in 1801. The Torrione (Grand Tower), located in Liberty Square, is the only surviving tower from the old medieval walls.

2487 ITALY (Veneto) - Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

2487 Venice: A bridge Over A Small Canal; Rialto Bridge;
Bridge of Sighs; St Mark's Square; St Mark's Basilica

Spread over 118 small islands, separated by canals and linked by bridges, in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers, Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce (especially silk, grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history.

1826 ITALY (Veneto) - Jesolo Sand Nativity Festival

Jesolo lies north of Venice, between Eraclea and Cavallino-Treporti, being located on an island of sorts, delimited by the rivers Piave and Sile, and an artificial canal called Cavetta. It is a famous seaside resort thanks to its abundant holiday facilities and its 15km beach called Lido di Jesolo. In this seaside resort occur every year two sand sculpture festivals: the largest one in summer (International Sand Sculpture Festival), which in 2015 has reached its 18th edition, and its smaller sister (Sand Nativy Festival) in winter, which in 2014 has reached its 13th edition. The sculpture depicted on the postcard is one realised in 2004 for Sand Nativy Festival by an european team.

1385 ITALY (Veneto) - Teatro La Fenice in Venice

Teatro La Fenice (The Phoenix) is an opera house in Venice, one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" as well as those in Europe. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice became the site of many famous operatic premieres at which the works of several of the four major bel canto era composers - Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi were performed. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, in 1774, 1836, and 1996. Last time La Fenice was rebuilt in 19th century style on the basis of a design by architect Aldo Rossi who, in order to obtain details of its design, used still photographs from the opening scenes of Luchino Visconti's 1954 film Senso which had been filmed in the house.

0701, 1052 ITALY (Veneto) - City of Verona (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 27.06.2013, 07.04.2014
At the time when was happening the action of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Verona reached its maximum prosperity, under the rule of the Scaliger family and particularly under Cangrande I, who protected the exiled poet Dante. Situated at the foot of Monte Lessini on the River Adige, in northern Italy, the city became important because it was at the intersection of several roads. Founded by ancient tribes and became a Roman colony in the 1st century BCE, was occupied by the Ostrogoths, by the Lombards, and by Charlemagne (774). In the early 12th century, it became an independent commune, but it fell to Venice in 1405, was part of the Austrian Empire from 1797, and joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1866. Because is an outstanding example of a town that has developed progressively and uninterruptedly over 2,000 years, incorporating artistic elements of the highest quality from each succeeding period, was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

The core of the city consists of the Roman town, which includes the Porta Borsari, the Porta Leoni, the Arco dei Gavi, the Ponte Pietra, the Roman theatre (excavated in the mid-19th century and restored for use in spectacles), and the Amphitheatre Arena (the second-largest after the Colosseum in Rome). The Scaligers rebuilt the walls, embracing a much larger territory in the west and another vast area on the east bank of the river. The heart of Verona is the ensemble consisting of the Piazza delle Erbe (with its picturesque vegetable market) and the Piazza dei Signori, with their historic buildings, including the Palazzo del Comune, Palazzo del Governo, Loggia del Consiglio, Arche Scaligere and Domus Nova. The Piazza Bra has a number of classicist buildings.

0581 ITALY (Veneto) - Burano - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

Situated at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, near Torcello, Burano it isn't in fact an island, but an archipelago of four islands, linked by bridges. Although it was inhabited since Romans time, it rose in importance only in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles, which was soon exported across Europe. Trade began to decline in the 18th century and the industry didn't revive until 1872, when a school of lacemaking was opened.

0551 ITALY (Veneto) - Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua

One of the only eight international shrines recognized by the Holy See is located in Padua, but it isn't the cathedral of the city, but Basilica Pontificia di Sant'Antonio di Padova (Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua). Known also as "il Santo", it was build between 1232 and 1301, being modified at the end of the 14th and the mid 15th century. According to his will, Saint Anthony (1195-1231), venerated as the Patron Saint of the lost things, had been buried in the small church of Santa Maria Mater Domini, which probably dating from the late 12th century, and near which a convent was founded by him in 1229. This church was incorporated into the present basilica as the Cappella della Madonna Mora (Chapel of the Dark Madonna), and is an important place of pilgrimage.

0351 ITALY (Veneto) - Saint Mark's Basilica - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

Basilica di San Marco (St Mark's Basilica), the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, is the most famous of the city's churches. The most famous but also the most byzantine, to use a term entered in Europeans language long after the fall of Constantinople (1453), because as long as there was, the Eastern Roman Empire's successor has been appointed either Basileia Rhomaion (in Greek) or Imperium Romanum (in Latin) or simply Romania (not to be confused with the current Romania). How much owes Venice (and Western Europe generally) to Constantinople, it's impossible to quantify.

0313 ITALY (Veneto) - Rialto Bridge - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

I was telling here that I visited Venice in June 2010. But I didn't said that two places I particularly liked and they remained well ingrained in my memory: the island of Burano, with its brightly coloured homes, and Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge). In the half an hour in which I admired the Grand Canal from the top of the bridge's arch, among crowds of tourists and a few locals, I felt, I couldn't tell why, as in a movie from 70's. Maybe because I have seen so many times on television this aquatic highway of Venice, crossed by innumerable vaporetti, boats, and gondolas and bordered on both sides by buildings so diverse, some of them of 700 years old, that in my mind has become a visual cliché.

0001 ITALY (Veneto) - Saint Mark's Square - part of Venice and its Lagoon (UNESCO WHS)

Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square) is the main public square of Venice, so famous that he often is told simply Piazza.  All other urban spaces in the city (except the Piazzetta and the Piazzale Roma) are called campi (fields). The Piazzetta (the Little Piazza) is an extension of the Piazza towards the Venetian Lagoon, and the two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice. The Square is dominated at its eastern end by the great Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica), about which I wrote here.