Destinations
Venice was founded by refugees. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, people fleeing barbarian invasions retreated to the marshy islands of the Venetian Lagoon. By the 9th century, this collection of fishing communities had coalesced into a republic governed by an elected Doge — a system lasting over a thousand years, one of the longest-surviving republics in history.
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Venice’s golden age, roughly the 13th to 16th centuries, saw it control the most profitable trade routes between Europe and Asia. The wealth funded the Doge’s Palace, the paintings of Bellini, Titian and Tintoretto. The Arsenal was the largest industrial complex in pre-modern Europe, capable of assembling a warship in a single day.
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Decline came slowly, then all at once. Ottoman conquests disrupted trade, Atlantic sea routes shifted power westward. Napoleon dissolved the republic in 1797, ending 1,100 years of independence. Today Venice faces mass tourism, rising seas and a resident population below 50,000 — walking through Venice is walking through the physical record of wealth, decline, beauty and fragility.
