Venice is called one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Today Venice is part of Italy, but for a long time this amazing city was a separate state, a prosperous and developed trading settlement, which arose at the beginning of our era on the islands of the Venetian lagoon.
Instructions
Step 1
Venice is a city on the water, slowly but surely sinking under it. The future of Venice worries people - in a few centuries this architectural pride of Italy will drown in the waters of the Mediterranean lagoons. But the past of this city also raises many questions, and one of the most common - who thought of building a settlement in such unfavorable conditions?
Step 2
Legend has it that Venice emerged from the foam of the sea in 421 AD, on March 25 - this day is celebrated today as the day the city was founded. But history gives a more serious and accurate answer to the question of the origin of the city. The territory of Venice and the adjacent lands even before our era was occupied by the Veneti tribe, thanks to which the Romans called this area Venice. Gradually, more and more people settled on these lands, a Roman colony appeared here, and even during the decline of the Roman Empire, Venice grew and developed.
Step 3
Many people mistakenly believe that houses in Venice were originally built in water, on stilts, so the question of why the first inhabitants of the city decided to choose this particular place seems fair to them. In fact, there was a group of islands in the Venetian lagoon, on which the first settlements appeared. Gradually they grew, bridges were built between them. As many as thousands of small islands where people built houses, organized markets and were engaged in handicrafts, united into one big city. Due to the huge number of islands, bridges were not built in time, so the Venetians began to use small boats to move around the city.
Step 4
The unusual location of Venice helped the inhabitants to resist the barbarians: in the center, the islands were surrounded by walls, and outside the main canals were blocked off with chains. It was more difficult for the enemy to invade a city located on the water. Venice was hardly touched by the barbarian raids that shook the entire mainland, and the fall of the Roman Empire had little effect on the city.
Step 5
In the sixth century, the wealthy inhabitants of the province of Venice fled from the Lombards to the islands, so the social structure of the city began to be based on the aristocracy - before that, mostly fishermen lived on the water. This also contributed to the development of the commercial power of Venice. New sea routes began to appear, spices were transported through Venice to Europe: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. The city has become one of the most important political and commercial centers in Europe.
