Tourist's Attractions In Venice

Venice is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

The city buildings and decorations, from Byzantine to Renaissance styles, show great artistic achievement.

The works of the Venetian school of painting and art are represented throughout Venetian palaces, public buildings, and churches.

The center and most frequented part of the city is Saint Mark’s Square.

At the eastern end are Saint Mark’s Cathedral and the Doges’ Palace (Palazzo Ducale), the two most important and imposing structures in Venice.

The cathedral—begun about 828, reconstructed after a fire in 976, and rebuilt between 1047 and about 1071—is considered an outstanding example of Byzantine architecture.

The palace—begun about 814, destroyed four times by fire, and each time rebuilt on a more magnificent scale—is a remarkable building in Italian Gothic with some early Renaissance elements.

The northern side of the piazza is occupied by the Procuratie Vecchie (1496) and the southern side by the Procuratie Nuove (1584), both built in Italian Renaissance style.

During the time of the Venetian republic these buildings were the residences of the nine procurators, or magistrates, from among whom the doge, or chief magistrate, was usually selected.

Along the two palaces and their extension, the Atrio or Fabbrica Nuova (1810), extend arcades with cafés and shops.

Near the Doges’ Palace stand two famous granite columns erected in 1180, one bearing the winged lion of Saint Mark and the other Saint Theodore of Studium on a crocodile.

The most conspicuous feature of the city is the campanile, or bell tower, of Saint Mark, which is about 91 m (about 300 ft) high; it was built between 874 and 1150 and reconstructed after it collapsed in 1902.

In the rear of the Doges’ Palace is the famous Bridge of Sighs, which connects the palace with public prisons and was the route by which prisoners were taken to and from the judgment hall.

The most famous of the three bridges spanning the Grand Canal is the Rialto (1588), lined with a double row of shops.

The Grand Canal, the principal traffic artery of Venice, is lined with old palaces of the Venetian aristocracy, among which are many structures of historical and architectural renown.

Farther north, near the lagoon, is the 15th-century Church of San Giovanni in Bragora, a domed and columned edifice in the Italian Gothic style and once the funeral church of the doges.

In its vicinity is the greatest monument in Venice, the 15th-century equestrian statue of the Venetian general Bartolomeo Colleoni, the work of the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio.
The same section is the site of the Arsenal, a former center of shipbuilding, and public gardens.

Islands extend to the east in the direction of the Lido, an island reef outside the lagoon that is famous as a bathing beach and recreational resort.

Great museums, such as the Ca’ d’Oro (located in a Gothic palace on the Grand Canal), and historic churches are found throughout the city.

The Libreria Vecchia (Old Library) contains about 13,000 manuscripts and more than 800,000 books, some of immense value.

The University of Venice was founded in 1868.