FORTIFIED PLACES

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Lifelong Learning ProgrammeErasmus Intensive Programme 2011/2012

Università Iuav di VeneziaFacoltà di Architettura

Workshop’s Guidelinesedited by

Marco Ballarin and Alessandro Bonadio

FORTIFIED PLACES

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Università Iuav di VeneziaFacoltà di Architettura

13 > 27 aprile 2012

promoted byFacoltà di Architettura dell’Università Iuav di Venezia

This project has been funded with support from theEuropean Commission

Lifelong Learning Programme Programma di apprendimento permanente

partnership

Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura Universidad de Sevilla

patronage

Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici di Venezia e Laguna collaboration

Istituzione Parco della Laguna – Comune di Venezia

Photo on the cover: Comune di Venezia - Archivio della Comunicazione, Osservatorio Fotografico - photographer: Giorgio Bombieri

credits:

the iconography of this publication was adapted from:

archive of arch. Gianluca Ballarin: pag 42, 46, 47;Caniato G., Turri E., Zanetti M. La laguna di Venezia: pag:16,23, 39Carpaccio, Il leone di San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Venezia; pag 3Colamussi A., Isole della Laguna di Venezia : guida aerofotografi-ca del territorio: pag: 8, 32, 33, 48,49;Crovato G., Crovato M., Isole abbandonate della Laguna: com’era-no e come sono: pag 47;current archive of “Soprintendenza dei Beni Culturali di Venezia”:pag 27, 45;Fortificatorische Detailbeschreibung von Venedig: pag 30, 31;Gelichi S., Archeologia e monasteri nella laguna veneziana in San Giacomo in Paludo: pag 44;Google Earth: pag 21, 37;Marchesi P., Fortezze veneziane, pag: 16.Moro P., Il piano di attacco austriaco contro Venezia: pag 28.29;Zorzi A., Venezia Scomparsa: pag 28, 44;www.bingmaps.com: pag 22, 38;www.wikipedia.com: pag 6, all the drawings are made by Marco Ballarin and Alessandro Bonadio

communication Servizio Comunicazione Università Iuav di Veneziawww.iuav.itcomesta@iuav.it

web site designGiulio Testori

support for the visit to Verona and PeschieraProViaggiArchitettura

a special thanks to Claudia Visser

thanks toAGESCI Venezia, Associazione VAS, Gianluca Ballarin,Antonio Quagliati,

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scientific direction Alberto Ferlenga, Università Iuav di Venezia, Maria Salerno, E.N.S.A. Paris-Malaquais, Antonio Tejedor Cabrera, E.T.S.A. de Sevilla

coordinated and curated byMauro Marzo, Università Iuav di Venezia

administrative managementLucia Basile, Università Iuav di Venezia, Maria Gatto, Università Iuav di Venezia

professorsFederico Arévalo Rodríguez, E.T.S.A. de Sevilla (Architectural Graphic Analysis / Survey and Analysis of Buildings), Alberto Ferlenga, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design), Carlos García Vázquez, E.T.S.A. de Sevilla (History and Theory of Architecture / Architectural Composi-tion), Jean Leonard, E.N.S.A. Paris-Malaquais (Théorie et pratiques de la conception architecturale et urbaine),Mercedes Linares Gómez del Pulgar, E.T.S.A. de Sevilla (Architectural Graphic Analysis), Mauro Marzo, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design), Luca Merlini, E.N.S.A. Paris-Malaquais (Théorie et pratiques de la conception architecturale et urbaine), Emmanuel Pinard, E.N.S.A. Paris-Malaquais (Arts et Techniques de la Représentation), Maria Salerno, E.N.S.A. Paris-Malaquais (Théorie et pratiques de la conception architecturale et urbaine), Antonio Tejedor Cabrera, E.T.S.A. de Sevilla (Architectural Design)

integrated professorsChiara Ferro, Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici di Venezia e Laguna (Heritage Conservation), Elisabetta Molteni, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici (History of Architecture), Claudia Tessarollo, Università Iuav di Venezia (Technology of Architecture) guest professorsAldo Aymonino, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design), Massimo Carmassi, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design), Fernanda De Maio, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design),Carlo Magnani, Università Iuav di Venezia (Architectural and Urban Design)

tutorsMarco Ballarin, Università Iuav di Venezia, Alessandro Bonadio, Università Iuav di Venezia, Giulio Testori, Università Iuav di Venezia juryLamberto Amistadi, Università degli Studi di Parma, Renato Bocchi (foreman), Università Iuav di Venezia, Michele De Mattio, Università degli Studi di Udine, Ambra Dina, Istituzione Parco della Lagu-na – Comune di Venezia, Eleonora Mantese, Università Iuav di Venezia, Alessandra Marin, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Giuseppe Rallo, Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici per le province di Venezia Belluno Padova e Treviso

students

José Miguel Acosta Bejarano, Grégoire Arthuis, Arthur Jérome Bertrand Bel, María Carretero Fernández, Mariam Chaouki, Emmanuel Constant, Karol Czarzasty, Lorenzo Fattorel, Pilar Fernández Rueda, Paloma García De Soria Lucena, Juliana Gemma, Doriane Hugues, Maddalena Iovene, Camille Landre, Marion Le Coq, Louise Le Penndu, Giovanni Lenci, Ho Ching Leung, Moreno Lotto, Margherita Manzon, Claudia Michelazzo, Francisco Javier Navarro De Pablos, Juan Navarro Velázquez, Claudia Puglierin, Agathe Saint-Genis, Piergiovanni Scardellato, Robin Stordeur, Montserrat Tous Romero, Jonida Turani

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Introduction Mauro Marzo

The “Fortified Places” workshop aims to increase educational exchanges among the (Faculty of Architecture) Facoltà di Architettura dell’Università IUAV of Venice, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais, and the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Sevilla. These universities have already worked in co-educational actions/projects/works with positive results; the Lifelong Learning Programme gives us the opportunity to deepen this collaboration in order to:- increase the number of students and teachers involved in these exchange initiatives;- to compare architectural and landscaping design methods among the Universities involved ;- to develop trans-disciplinary students skills required by professions activities today;The last point is the one that most importantly builds up how the proposal in these pages would like to respond to academic priorities the Erasmus Intensive Programme has given. Nowadays, the trans-disciplinary approach is one of the most appropriate teaching methods capable of training students in architectural design. The “Fortified Places” workshop involved architectural and landscaping design, historical disciplines, photography, architectural restoration not as a summation of knowledge, but as a critical trans-disciplinary learning area.The main purpose of the Intensive Programme is to make students fully aware of the opportunity of acquiring a method that approaches the topics and the project sites with the help of communication and comparison of the disciplines. On one hand, the need is to separate disciplinary knowledge, in order to train specialists; on other hand, the need is to train designers able to manage different knowledge in complex architectural projects, is strongly increasing To this effect, the workshop aims to develop projects in continuous comparison with various knowledge and with the support of the teachers of different disciplines.

Goals

The IP “Fortified Places’” goal is to underline the historical role of fortifications under the construction of urban and natural landscapes; the investigation/research con-cerns single fortified elements, also part of a wider system, and the potentialities that these elements can obtain today.This first edition of the IP - we hope that there will be two others in Spain and in Fran-ce - investigate on some fortified places scattered in Venice’s lagoon, which allows the analysis of their possible role within a programme that preserves and enhances the lagoon’s landscape.The progressive decommission of military functions, raises cultural, social and eco-nomic questions about the recovery of these buildings and sites; these places could become models that enhance the lagoon, by supporting sustainable tourism and cultural uses/traditions in agreement with the lagoon’s environmental history.The suggested topic is to create an analytical and planning study on a place (in this case the Venetian Lagoon) and on a specific system (cultural or touristic reuse of the decommission military installations).The main question is to obtain a method and an approach capable of solving plan-ning problems; a valid method applicable to other European backgrounds connoted by the presence of historical/environmental qualities to preserve and enhance.

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Main activities

The programme is possible thanks to the collaboration of the professors of the Università IUAV, ENSAPM and ETSAS, and to the goals the students of these three universities have in common. The IP is organized to increase students’ knowledge with ex cathedra classes and with a workshop approach that develops design projects.The main activities will be:- Multidisciplinary lessons and preliminary research are geared to strengthen the necessary notions and to deal with the project sites and IP issues. The main topics the classes with talk about: fortified systems in the Italian, French and Spanish landscapes; historical figures and element of the lagoon’s landscape; projects that cope with the cultural facilities of those sites characterized by historical backgrounds and by the delicacy of its environment; pictures of the lagoon; strate-gies of preservation and enhancement adopted in Italy, France and Spain;- Inspections in the project areas and in Veneto’s other fortified places;- Workshops involving representatives of the Territorial Government Offices and the Preservation/ Enhancement Offices of the Venice Lagoon;- Workshop activities for mixed groups (Italian, French and Spanish), geared to the development of projects; these activities will be an opportunity for active learning, they are aimed to develop the synthetic skill of students, projects ideas that might interpret thects of the sites and use all the notions learnt in class, in an interdisci-plinary and critical way.

Expected outputs

From classes participation and mixed design groups, the expected learning stu-dents results are:- Testing the range of needed tools to project in close relationship with the envi-ronmental fragility and historical military artifacts;- Control of the different scales of project, from design and photography to under-stand the morphology of the sites and to select the relevant features of the project area, to the architectural configuration of the structure;- Reflection on the relationship between architecture and specific context.With regard to teachers, the expected results are:- Comparing methods and approaches in historical and environmental project areas;- Testing the educational to merge different and specific knowledge;-Testing the workshop approach to improve exchanges and possible project hybridi-zation among design traditions of the three schools involved.

Design issues

The lagoon of Venice are scattered by evidence of a massive defense system dating back to different periods. At this time when military functions are dismissed in many places of Europe it is necessary to develop projects aimed to preserve and enhance these systems. This phenomenon can be understood as an extraordinary opportunity to return these sites to public community; however, the scale of these

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systems represents a serious risk of fast and gradual decay for the lack of planned interventions and recovery of physical/cultural values.Specific recovery actions are not enough to bring visitors flowing in dismissed mili-tary sites, with the restoration of individual items is necessary to develop a cultural project that can contextualize the historical reasons for these artifacts which were not just isolated fortresses but parts of a defensive system of the lagoon.On the other hand, these sites could be understood as an example of cultural landscape values that Venice and its lagoon are representatives today.The recovery of military artifacts in the lagoon as in other places of Italy or other Nations are increasingly numerous but (although these initiatives are laudable) they are often the result of a limited action and closed in themselves; it is necessa-ry to develop a cultural project that crosses history and geography, past and pre-sent in order to preserve the monumental remains and build up future scenarios.From this point of view, the Venetian fortresses may be understood as a constella-tion of places to set up, as a whole is a remarkable system that has to related to the knowledge of the lagoon landscape and new strategies for sustainable tourism. The knowledge acquired during the IP investigation phase and scenarios designed by students, with help from teachers, is a set of materials that could be presented to public opinion, representatives of local institutions and officials of architectural and landscaping safeguard institutions.the system of fortresses framed on a geographic scale can test new models to enhance the dismissed military structures within the lagoon context. From war or defense places, they may become places for history education, for understanding the nature and the perception of the landscape; they still could become opportu-nities for local economic revitalization. Although this is a teaching experience, it could provide a new perspective on the role of military abandoned artifacts, not only for the immense liquid plain that is the Venice lagoon, but also for those European areas characterized by a strong presents of abandoned military structures or dismissing perspective.

Methodology

The workshop will be structured into lectures, surveys, comparisons between groups of students and design exercises.The lessons will be specifically addressed to issues that involves various disciplines, After the lectures there will be seminaries discussion to improve the students abili-ty to interpolate knowledge and select critically the acquired information.The teaching staff will establish a dual dialogue with students. On the one hand, this staff will be engaged in lessons on the topic of IP issues, on the other hand it will lead - as in a kind of architecture atelier- mixed students groups (Italian, French and Spanish) to understand the lagoon characters, to define guidelines of projects and in the end to elaborate the final proposal. this second dialogue between teacher and student is aimed to transmit knowledge not from classical ex-cathedra lessons, but through an induction method. The teaching approach also provides to learn on vertical axis (teacher-student) and on horizontal axis (Italian student- French student -Spanish student).The final evaluation provided by the IP will not be relegated to the end of the wor-kshop, but will pass through successive collegial steps and critical discussion about

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the issues learned in the classroom, the comments made after the surveys and the problems emerged during the project elaboration. The lectures will be supplemen-ted by discussions between teachers and students in order not to allow a passive learning but improving the critical skills of the student.Finally, a fundamental part of the IP is the workshop time, it is understood as a full-time immersion to develop a real and sustainable design proposal.The project will be the final highlights of the educational activity; this will allow to check which way the proposed training program will lead to the goal achievements.

Monitoring and project evaluation

In order to verify if the IP objectives are achieved, it is necessary to develop tools for monitoring and evaluation.The monitoring takes place in intermediate stages of the training period and It uses, as a assessment tool, group discussion, critical reflection on the lessons, the considerations made during the seminaries where the various project groups share partial results with other students and tutors.The sharing of design strategies not only ensures a programmed control of the knowledge progression and skills critical / design students, but also allows to make more fluid the comparison of different design approaches between IP involved schools, it is hoped in this way the hybridization between teaching methods.The evaluation results of the workshop will be made through a critical discussion of the final project and through a specific exhibition of these. Teachers invited to sit on the jury (professors, but also representatives of public institutions and officials of architectural and landscaping safeguard institutions) will be asked to disclose, in addition to the merits or deficiencies of projects, common strategies reported, as well as any aspects of methodological originality that are derived from the initiative.Finally, the planned publication of the workshop, which will collect the lessons and the final results, will also contain a critical afterword expected of a outside teacher as impartial evaluator.

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The “Barena”: shoal or sandbank emerging from the water of the lagoon

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Fortified lagoonHistory of ideas of fortification in the Lagoon of VeniceMarco Ballarin

“ne quid urbi natura omnium munitissimae deesset”

Venice, the city on water famous throughout the world, is actually the most impor-tant town of a complex system of relations between nature and artifice. This centre represents and describes only part of this system. His representations, crossing all our communications systems, away a chance to earn this system as a necessary con-dition for its existence in time. We can synthesize the complexity of this system that defines the origin and future of this city with the term Venetian Lagoon. This Lagoon is the line that holds together all the different images of the cultures and societies that have lived in Venice since the sixth century. Of this time is the first image, narrated by Roman official, Cassiodorus, describing the inhabitants of this place as a simple “water birds, sometimes over the sea and sometimes on the ground”. This image might find it in a relief of the Lion of Venice of the sixteenth century, symbol of the Republic, as a clerk in the freight transport of tomorrow. The same continuity we could meet also looking at the following image that gives us this first unexpected visitor: the first Venetians lived all alike and all ate the same food offered by the Lagoon. Managing social relations through the water has brought the Venetians (which should better define as lagoon’s inhabitants) to perceive a need the empty space, a distance between things: the principle and practice of freedom in the ser-vice of cooperation required by the insular condition. Through the water acquired all the assets that the Lagoon could not provide trading with others who gave in abundance: so came the fresh water and, later, the timber needed for construction of buildings characterized by a monumental stone from, in turn, from Istria. Many

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The Venice LagoonThe natural fortification

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humanists, writers and politicians across Europe will write and advise the Republic as an example of freedom. The bodies of government and the highest offices of the Venetian Republic did not stop to remember and be guided by these principles alre-ady represented in that first image of the Lagoon. These images will always return the same in the history of the lagoon and also in the history of the Fortifications of the Lagoon. After this trip of this particular tourist the best form of defence that met some scared Roman during barbarian invasions it was to take refuge in Lagoon. Its walls were impenetrable to inexperienced people: because of its principal and not usual size, large surface extension and depth ambiguous. One could argue that these defences so secure, in defending from attack, gave back, before any compromise, new freedom. This new freedom is found in urban development that begins in the lagoon, where there are several centres consist of small groups of islands such as Torcello, Chioggia and Metamauco. Here, many noble families looted from Roman cities located near the edge of the lagoon, settle and begin to develop their business without completely detaching themselves from the hinterland. In this process, the town lagoon system grows up, and then responds to new attacks increasingly mo-ving away from old villages along the border. The safety also in this case depended on water: the people choose the place, in part already inhabited, farther from shore and safer than the change of tide from which it derives its name of “Rivoalto” (today Rialto). From here born Venice, the town made of many islands in itself independent, but connected through the water. That Venice which will become the Republic and will begin to extend its dominion along the Adriatic until arriving in the Middle East. In reality, politics and the fighting techniques of Venice enlighten us about the true interest of this state. Venice was interested in the ports, which aimed to trade with favourable terms. It was not interested in the land, but in those places where the products of that land were traded. Venice did not want to rule other peoples, but to ensure a profit to those people with whom it traded, and which guaranteed safety by controlling the sea. That water represents the freedom of Venice to control a territory beyond the territory itself. It is no coincidence that in Venice and in other ports whe-re traded, there were already “ghettos”, island between the islands, inside of which the stranger could practice their own laws, the Turkish in Venice as the Venetian in Constantinople. It was interested in those territories that shared it their condition, those territories that were linked to it through its own reason of existence: water. Ve-nice conceives itself, even outside of its domain, thinks his empire equal to itself, as a set of points connected by water. One can therefore say that the Republic had not developed a defence system; on the contrary, its development was measured with respect to the extension of the domains. Its main feature that made him unique was that of moving on the water. It is difficult to explain briefly how this military system worked, supported by the whole society, to protect businesses that took place mostly in private. In reality it was conceptually very simple: to a greater wealth of merchants and a greater number of exchanges in the port of Venice corresponded to a greater wealth of the State and of its community. So the Fortifications of the Lagoon is con-sidered the fleets of the Republic. These were built in the “Arsenale”, the shipyard was an organization where the work already advanced for the time allowed to obtain the finished product in all its parts in one place. Precisely because of its importance, the Arsenal will be one of the first places to be fortified, to be distinguished by the presence of some architectural element of defence (im-mobile). Venice noticed to be not architectonically fortified when he had to fight a war in its waters. Between 1379 and 1381 they fought the war of Chioggia against Genoa who had seized several ports in the hands of Venice along the Adriatic up to conquer this city located in the far south of the lagoon. After a long siege, the territories were recaptured, however

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thanks to the fleet. In addition to fighting on the “ battlefield” the fleet’s historic enemy, prevented the arrival of supplies to the city that became a death trap for the attackers. Despite the victory had been achieved with this defensive mobile sy-stem is found necessary to build defensive struc-tures in the inlets. These are the three gates of the lagoon on the Adriatic: the gate of Lido, to the north, the gate of Malamocco, in the centre, and the gate of Chioggia to the south. These early devices probably consist of modifications and ad-ditions to existing structures non-functional from the standpoint of defensive. In Chioggia they bu-ilt the castle of “Lova” in 1384, which will be cal-led in response to other changes and additions, Forte San Felice. The opposite inlet, the once of Lido, there must have already been a fortification of the XII, called “Castelvecchio”, which was likely to monitor and regulate the passage of ships as well as give some supplies from them. Almost certainly in the two inlets were structures that functioned as a ligh-thouse and it is plausible the presence of other structures of architectural services to the loading that occurred in these areas for greater depth of their bottoms. The ships could not be loaded com-pletely into the lagoon and these operations were carried out in the shores, where it is said they ga-thered all the troops coming from Europe ‘ready to sail for the Fourth Crusade. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, “Castelvecchio” point loca-ted on the Lido near the monastery of St. Nicholas was involved in some work of restoration and tran-sformation. In this same period the government also discusses the possibility of constructing an architectural work in front of this castle that will be called “Castelnuovo”. In the second half of the fifteenth century military architecture in the most important progress in the lagoon area is that new crenellated walls of ‘”Arsenal Novissimo”. At the beginning of the next century the outbreak of a fire due to the presence of deposits of gunpowder in this plant suggest moving this material in the outer islands. The island of San Secondo and San Giorgio in Alga become powder kegs after appro-priate amendments aimed at safeguarding the precious material: this zoning is often practiced by Venice as a defensive and preventive the spre-ad of fire due to the extreme proximity buildings in the downtown (origin of the myth of Murano glass). Example of this concept and military plan-

Vittore Carpaccio,The lion of St Mark,1516

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ning is also the case of “Lazzaretti”, admissions of people, goods and ships coming from the east with the function of preserving the city from the possible spread of epidemics. Not difficult to imagine why these same islands had reported the presen-ce of other stores of gunpowder. This approach responds to a general reorganization of its defensive structures that will be addressed again in the creation of the League of Cambrai (1509) that gathered around the Pope Julius II all the states bordering the Republic interested in its territories. After the peace and the establishment of new borders Venice begins to define a new defence system that covers all the cities under his rule, in Veneto as along the Adriatic. The sixteenth century will be the most productive period in terms of architectural theories about the fortifications. In Venice the most experienced personalities in the topic will produce one of the most interesting debates between different researches across Europe. The view of the fortifications in this sense begins to get complicated because Venice must find solutions for inland city, the lagoon and also for the large number of ports along the sea increasingly subject to influences of new states emerging in the Adriatic. While Venice is attacked politically “state land”, on the other hand is forced by the Otto-man empire and the empires that are developing in response to geopolitical shift in-duced by the discovery of America to undergo a shift in second order in the shipping trade. Then change the political geography, but also the weapons and navigation techniques. The realization of such a state of crisis and the complexity induced by this new landscape culminates in the creation of a judiciary : the “Provveditorato alle Fortezze” (the superintendence to Fortresses). The various arguments and debates addressed in this office show us how much that ‘idea of Laguna was still present in the consciousness and able to influence the process and architectural design. The two demonstration projects from this point of view are that for the Fort St. Andrew and the fortifications of Chioggia. The Fort St. Andrew’s is the more representative military architecture of this period, designed by Michele Sanmicheli that in 1535 had been contracted by the Republic to prepare a report on the state of the fortifi-cations in the lagoon. The fortress was built on the ruins of “Castelnuovo” in front of St. Nicholas. The construction of this work combines several issues: the need to defend the main entrance redefining the system of the “two castles” (“Castelnuovo” e ”Calstelvecchio”). In this feature we can then associate the architectural quality and the functional definition of monumental gateway to Venice and the place of his performances (especially the celebration of the marriage of the sea). Straining a chain between the two forts also could prevent access to enemy ships, while through

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The Venice Lagoonsystem of fortification

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a walkway on stilts could reach another defensive station on the further north to control the channel that passes between the island and the once of St. Erasmus. This system shows how to build a fort in the lagoon means defining a limit breaking the law which was its previous guarantee of safety: the boundary between the channel and shallow water was viable and flexible indeterminate. At the same time Sanmi-cheli will remember how this relationship with the lagoon should be maintained preserving the inner edge not defined, more natural and less man-made.The back bastion will be built in 1645 without following the original design. To ex-plain the reasons of this design decision should remember the work that will affect the tip of the Lido, around the “Castelvecchio” and the monastery of St. Nicholas (1543). The drawings for this project will show a great work of bastioned on the east, west and south sides. On this side was to be realized the element most imposing associated with a channel able to ensure utmost safety in the case of a possible at-tack through the port of Malamocco. Again, however, on the home front, where there is the castle, the bastion is not being built. Following the suggestions of Fran-cesco Maria della Rovere, Captain General of the Venetian Republic, on this side had to prepare only the foundations of the fortress to be erected only in case of war. He wrote that the enemy might take possession of Venice without ever having to face these kinds of barriers that, if they had been conquered, could then serve as a defen-sive place for an attack to the interior. At the same time the formal and material weakness is seen as a convenience for freedom in a time of peace, political characte-ristic of Venice already mentioned. The partial anthropization as a principle of free-dom represented by the Lagoon underlined by the Captain General in accordance with the choices made by Sanmicheli are remembered after his death by a man who drove the captain during his visits: Christopher Sabbadino. This man of the judiciary to the water, a hydraulic engineer, recalled to his old rival, Alvise Cornaro, his tea-chings in regard to the debate on the fortifications of Chioggia. Cornaro was a no-bleman of Padua who had already distinguished for some important reclamation work in the countryside of his hometown, but also for an unsuccessful attempt to enter the most important rooms in Venetian politics. These advised to Chioggia the construction of large walls around the perimeter of the city, which would be likened to a mainland city. Parallel to this proposal was discussed the possibility of closing the inlet of Malamocco and to divert the estuary of some rivers out of the lagoon. The comparative analysis of these intentions of the will of the Cornaro speaks of bringing the land to Laguna, where it had managed to build his wealth. In all these proposals Sabbadino responds that, conscious of the experience and history of Veni-ce, considers it necessary to divert the rivers, activities practiced since ancient times, to avoid the continual deposition of debris in the lagoon. In the inlet of the port of Chioggia instead follow the consolidation work performed on the Fort San Felice, leaving the relationship between the city and the water intact. Just to ensure conti-nuity in this relationship Sabbadino present the idea of digging canals around Veni-ce by increasing the efficiency of inland navigation. The land obtained will be used to clean up some parts of the city so redefining the edges. This dual system of channels and “fondamente” (roads parallel to the channels) would produce a new continuous edge along the main centre securing from debris and facilitating the operations of naval defence. In response to this project by various defensive and conservative points of view, the Cornaro propose that the perimeter channel is asso-ciated with a large embankment constructed with earth excavation on which to place a large rampart and trees. Meanwhile it also ensures the doors river on the south of Chioggia, which constituted the trade route of Lombardy. North of the river Brenta built the fort of Brondolo to the sea, and the fort of San Michele to the lago-

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on. Near the river Adige the “Bastion grando” This represents a growing concern that Venice had for the possibility of a closure of trade routes or use of these to penetrate into the lagoon. In the same year, presumably designed by Jacopo Sansovino, produ-ce the octagonal islets through which guard the canal from the inlet of Chioggia and Malamocco could lead in “San Mark’s Basin”. The model of these odd features, which defined along the shores of a narrow places easily defended, had been made on the model of Poveglia Octagon, built during the war of Chioggia on the tip of Poveglia island, once an important and bustling downtown lagoon. Towards the end of the century, within the ramparts that are taking place in San Nicolo on the Lido will be built on a great headquarters (“quartier grando”), a large courtyard building that will be enlarged and used until the last World War under the name that still now identi-fies: the barrack “Guglielmo Pepe”. For a new war event of fundamental importance for the fate of the Republic of Venice, the War of Candia (Crete island) fought betwe-en 1645 and 1669, Venice will react with a new intensification of the fortifications of the port infrastructured less. It is important to consider how the construction of fortifications was always related to changes in morphology of the islands and shores. The inlets were probably much larger, undefined. The achievements of fortifications were discussed along with ideas on the morphological definition of the beaches that changed over time following the most appropriate choices from the ecological point of view, according to the continuing desire to preserve the condition of the lagoon. Only thus can we understand the Octagon Poveglia location and its distance from the fort Alberoni, on the tip of Malamocco, whose remains are now part of a golf club, and the fort of “San Pietro in Volta”, located on the opposite tip, at the ends of the shore of Pellestrina. At the same time the Senate will decide on the implementa-tion of some gunpowder on an island near other already allocated for this use (“San Secondo” and “San Giorgio in Alga”). The island of “St. Angelo della polvere” had been occupied since the tenth century by various religious orders, and will become part of the line of defence that at the end of the republic will be built on the east

Alvise Corner project for the fortification of Venice

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side of the lagoon, to the mainland. This line will be defined through the implemen-tation of so-called lagooned battery placed between them at a constant distance in a position to define an arc of a circle, which goes from the inlet of Malamocco to that of Sant’Erasmo. The batteries, initially built on stilts, were intended to guard chan-nels connected to the mainland, thereby proving the renewed attention of Venice to a possible attack from the ground. The construction of defensive lines for points also distinguished the creation of several workstations at “Ca’ Lino”, between the mouths of the Brenta and the Adige. This system will spread a lot during the fall of the Re-public and the sale of the Veneto to the Austrian Empire as enshrined in the Treaty of Campoformio in 1797. During the first Austrian domination they begin to design and build a series of small stations that define a specific font line. The achievements were concentrated initially in Sottomarina, the peninsula that encloses in the lagoon the city of Chioggia, and around the rivers that flowed just in the south of it. Another important point of intensification was the inlet of the Lido in its branch to the north, less infrastructured until then because it did not lead directly to San Marco. This inlet was called the mouth of St. Erasmus before that the construction of the breakwater at Punta Sabbioni enclose the homonymous island in the lagoon. St. Erasmus was a beach and so they began to build several defensive positions to defend the entrance. Grows exponentially in this period the number of fortified places that seem to follow a precise hierarchy. This order seems to follow the Venetian practice, to defend the doors, but also must consider the possibility that the Austrians, by changing their boundaries, they had a new perception of the enemy. The Austrians found themsel-ves to govern an unfamiliar and particular territory, the Lagoon, characterized by a widespread urban condition where it is difficult to perceive and represent the power of the new institutions. Probably the Austrians had to use the defensive work of ar-chitecture as a monument to his inauguration, repeating everywhere similar patterns and therefore recognizable. The defensive work in this sense becomes political ac-tion, authoritarian and coercive in some way. During the French domination (1805-

Cristoforo Sabbadino project for the exten-sion of the fondamen-ta’s margin of Venice, 1557

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The Venice LagoonClassification of Venice “Piazzaforte” based on type and year of construction

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1815) the mode of action will not change in substance, but only in ways: in fact the problem is the inability by the occupant to understand the Lagoon as a means, a required distance, and as the place of representation. Continue to develop those points, some previously identified by the Austrians, are considered essential to a general inspection of the lagoon rather than for his defence. The foreign domination could build his fortress with an idea opposite to that which had always supported Venice: to built a myriad of fixed figure, motionless, in that background established from the lagoon, landscape of freedom and flexibility of movement. The way in which the French attempted to do so was, from a certain point of view, more intere-sting and blunt. In fact, they destroyed the great monasteries and churches that in the Venetian’s imaginary and in the social structure of the city were the representa-tion of a larger community. A community that not only could recognize itself in a saint, but in all those things to which the saint could delay: a group of noble families (usually the first patrons of holy places), the goods that they traded and the crafts-men who worked to obtain the finished product. After his return the Austrian Empire will continue the militarization of the territory in the same way and more intensely as he had begun until 1866, when the Venetian lands are annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The artillery and techniques continue to change: when it is loses the knowledge of the Lagoon each piece of land becomes a possible point of attack. The lagoon is a continuous edge, a ring around Venice, will be built ideally continuous barriers through battery placed at constant distances. The objective is to densify the fortifications along the existing lines of defence: the mouth of the port of Chioggia, the Lido and the line of lagoon’s batteries. In Chioggia interventions are oriented mainly on the Fort, where they added more modern facilities. In the area around St Nicholas various artefacts are made, they densify the stations on the island of St. Erasmus, and there are others in different islands around the nucleus of Torcello and Burano to link this system with that of lagoon’s batteries. On the north side of the same harbour mouth, to close the triangulation, we realized the strength of Treporti, once overlooking the harbor mouth, before construction of the breakwater at Punta Sabbioni. One of the entrenched areas of greatest value will become the area around the Forte Marghera, between the lagoon and the land at the closest point with Ve-nice. Around this line is drawn further land was only partially implemented designed to protect Venice, considered the greatest lengths range of new weapons. Around the fort of Marghera is drawn another line of defence, after only partially achieved intended to defend Venice considered the greatest lengths range of new weapons. The Italian fortifications of the early twentieth century will focus precisely in this area as increased safety margin. The fort of Marghera was thought by the Austrians before the French occupation who built it, and this was intended to supervise the new railway bridge that connected permanently to the Venice hinterland. The bridge (the Brifge of Freedom), built in 1842, was thought by some wooden arches, ready to be blown up in case of danger, and was defended by two stations located in the middle and the end of its path. The construction of this bridge establishes the time when any idea of defensive system loses its meaning and perhaps not only for Veni-ce. Venice is the first in which it becomes manifest. The bridge is the formalization as a material construction because of the impossibility of attacking Venice now fully accessible by land and by sea. Although after the First World War, Venice as a tra-ding centre and its military arsenal as a manufacturing centre, had virtually no value in the new Italian state will probably be just the lagoon and the history that has produced over the centuries to ensure the survival of Venice facing the world wars.

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MAZZORBETTO FORT

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Location, morphological description,architectural features, history and potentialAlessandro Bonadio

Location

The Mazzorbo’s island is located in the north of Murano, crossed the islands San Gia-como in Paludo and Madonna del Monte. The island is located westward to Burano and northward of Torcello North, the two touristic islands of the Venice lagoon.At the time of the ancient Romans Majurbium (Magna Urbs, major city) was one of the famous villas of Altino and the “Altinati” take refuge there during the invasion of the Lombards during the 640 AD.In the eighties, the architect Giancarlo De Carlo, designs and builds in Mazzorbo island a residential complex oriented to rebuild and repopulate the island, through a modern language, however, the traditional spaces characteristic of the settlement lagoon.A navigable channel divided Mazzorbo into two islands, the most important is called proper Mazzorbo, the second largest island is called “Mazzorbetto” although it is much larger than the first; the latter, in fact, has been in the past affected by envi-ronmental changes which have invested much of the northern lagoon, so that part was submerged.The Mazzorbetto Fort is located in a “island in the island”, in the Southeast tip of the Mazzorbetto Island (the minor of the two islands) to south of the Isola dei Laghi, and is reachable only by boats of their own.

the island shape is formed by channels dug in the XVIII cent. by the French army

Bird’s view from east of the Mazzorbo Fort

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Island of Burano

Island of Torcello

Island of Mazzorbo

View of the north lagoon

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Description of morphological and architectural features

The island is home to the fort has 16.000 square meters of surface, the first island’s evidence dates back to 900 AD, when a noble Paduan founded the convent of St. Eufemia, which later moved to some nuns from the Benedictine monastery of Sant Amgelo di Ammiana. By decree of the Sena-to della Repubblica ( the Serenissima’s governa-ment) in the September 12 1768, the monastery was suppressed and the island is used for military purposes; in 1805 the building was demolished to allow for the following year, the construction of the Austrian ridotto defense with cruciform plan; the beginning of the 900 was also reduced demo-lished and in its place was built the Mazzorbetto Fort, used until the Second World War and then abandoned. In 1981, the scouts of A.G.E.S.C.I in the area of Venezia took, in granting the Munici-pal, the island to host their own summer camps.In addition to hosting the scouts, the island is a center for university students for short periods; to hosts these groups it has undergone several chan-ges: the back of the island was placed a slide that allows people to use the kayaks and canoes with ease; to instead of a washer, now there is a place for the celebration of Masses.The island is accessed via a channel to the south west, carved by the Austrians, 7 m wide, and the Mazzorbetto Fort, 80 meters long, 10 meters wide and a height of 5.5 m, consists in its present: from a battery in line with six artillery positions placed above the cassamatta partially buried on the west side, and a landing place to the south; it consists

Plan of Mazzorbetto fort

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of a thirteen rooms, six of which housed the am-munition, while seven were rooms for the military, all vaulted and barrel aligned along a corridor of service for the storage of ammunition brought to the “pieces” using mechanical lifting equipment. The “pieces” or cannons were the 149 G (149 mm caliber and had the G stands for the cast mate-rials with which he was made the gun) installed without the metal roof as it was rather strong in Tron, and Gazzera Carpenedo in tricerato Mestre.The main facade of the fort is regular and sym-metrical, composed of 11 segmental arches in the first order and second order, which has a gallery with 6 slots, is accessed via two staircases at the ends of the front.The fort is surrounded by high embankments up to six meters, and those embankments are inter-rupted to insert two access gates on the south side of the island. The work on uneven ground had three circular rondellas placed in the south, in the north, and in north-west,with a large dia-meter, detached from the wall to the canal and the lagoon, and were tasked to repair the military by the effect of gunfire noise, today we could see only the circular tracks around the perimeter of the embankments.A dense vegetation covers almost all manufactu-red goods leaving only a few passable stretches, and you can access the highest part of the ram-parts by a ladder placed on the right of the fort.The traces of the foundation walls of the small Franco-Austrian military demolished are visible within the square at the centre of the island.

The main front of the fort

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The west side of the fort is partially buried by an embankment

History

The island, where now the fort rises, had, in its original function, the task of hosting a convent. At the eastern entrance of the channel Mazzorbo, to the right to Torcello stood the ancient Mona-stery of S Eufemia, whose testimony is clear and the eighteenth century engraving of Tironi and Sandi, in the drawing you can see the church of Sant ‘Euphemia and its bell tower.The news that we have come to us from Bernar-dino Scardeonio that, in his history of ancient Pa-dua, tells us of a noble woman of Padua, Marghe-rita, who retired in the year 900 AD with three nobles girls in Mazzorbetto island and founded the monastery. In 1439 it was annexed by the

These voids were used to transport munitions from the storages to workstations

The covers were added with the restoration of the fort in 1980

The artillery positions

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bishop of Torcello, the monastery of San Angelo in theAmmiana island, already inhabited by the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict that were redu-ced to number three due to progressive deteriora-tion and abandonment of the island.With the decree of 12 September 1768, the mo-nastery and the church were closed and buildings were adapted for military use, in 1805 the com-plex was demolished to allow for the following year, reduced by the construction of the French, it was realized in 1806 on the ruins of the ancient monastery of St. Euphemia destroyed by Napole-on’s troops.The description given by the Austrians for the “Plan of the austrian attack against the Venice” described, in the 1900, the italian defence as a: “Opera in the land irregular six-sided with three

The blockhaus of the“ridotto” had a cruciform plan, was built in brick and wood

View of the Sant’ Eufemia monasteryengraving by Tironi and Sandi XVIII cent.

Plan of Fort Mazzorbetto

The “rondella” was used as a location for defense in case of attack

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rondellas. The east facade, facing the canal Dese, was preparing for the defense with guns, the re-maining fronts for the defense of infantry. Height 5.53 2.53 to 3.79 m thickness of the parapet. To the west a ditch with water, 8 m in width, and depth 1.74 m to the north east and south moat is replaced by the lagoon. Inside a walled cruciform blockhouse-proof shell and a cistern. The work serves to block the channels of Dese, Burano and San Giacomo “.The ridotto defence was not originally an artillery position, but an ammunition storage with a ba-stion perimeter and a central cruciform cassamat-ta, it became artillery position when the Italian military command, after the establishment of six consecutive projects, decided to destroy the cen-tral blockhouse and built in its place a traversone in concrete with six stations from 149G.The location of the fort is more backward than the previous one, and strangely the building is not lo-cated on the old foundations of the small French-Austrian, however, remains unchanged system of embankments and revolvers.The fort, with its new setting, becomes part of the system of fortifications that served to protect the area of North-East to the fish farms and the eaves of the mainland, with the artillery covering the Sile and the Piave in their lead in the Adriatic.This system has had enormous importance in 1914-18, the first word war, when, after the rout of Caporetto, the Italian-Austrian front line stop-ped at the Piave a few kilometers from Venice.The “pieces” of artillery was very effective, could fire up to S. Dona di Piave and the port of Cor-

Under the embankments were bunkers protect the fort

Section of the embankment

Section of the fortress

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tellazzo and currently remain visible only places where they lived the guns.After the First World War the fort’s island became, until the early 40’s a fascist summer camp for Pic-cole Italiane and Balilla.During World War II anti-aircraft batteries were probably installed in the slots of the artillery and, later, in the early postwar years, the fort, were housed displaced families, after that the island was completely abandoned.The state of abandonment of the Mazzorbetto’s fort lasted until the early ‘80s, when he made a program for recovering stable, thanks to an ap-propriation of public money by the City Council wanted to recover the island (2001).In 1999 were completed by the Venice Water Au-thority - Consorzio Venezia Nuova, some urgent reinforcement of the banks and re-calibration and quickening of the channel environment.

Plan of the Mazzorbo french fortress

The floor was raised off the ground to conserve the ammonition from the moisture

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The fortress was 7,90 meters high and 30 meters long each wings

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Potential

The island in recent years has shown his new vo-cation, the warmth and hospitality of groups such as scout groups, educational purposes related to nature activities, topographical observation and knowledge of the beautiful landscape of the la-goon.Thanks to its privileged location within the lago-on system, and particularly in light of the height of its embankments, it is possible to make the island a vantage point for the fauna and flora typical of this delicate and unique ecosystem.The island of Mazzorbetto can then become a new, strategic centre for the reception, through new accommodations refreshment and rest, and may become part of an innovative system of wi-despread hospitality that might come to involve more islands to ‘inside the lagoon.The new architectural artifacts that the island will be found to accommodate it to perform new fun-ctions will be temporary, removable and repositio-nable depending on the particular needs of each occasion, they could become a new landmark, visible as a sort of “lighthouse “, or keep a me-taphorical dimension within the lush vegetation, and become an integral part of the lagoon lan-dscape.

The island of Mazzorbo and the fort

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Axonometry of Mazzorbetto fort

The plan of each artillery position was circular to allow each gun to turn on itself

The embankment are 6 meters high. Its perimeter around the fort protected him from the attacks

The ammunition were brought upstairs by mechanical lifting equipment

From the embankment of east side you can watch the Torcello’s island

The old fort with cruciform plan demolished by the ital- ians to build a new one

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The plan of each artillery position was circular to allow each gun to turn on itself

The embankment are 6 meters high. Its perimeter around the fort protected him from the attacks

The ammunition were brought upstairs by mechanical lifting equipment

From the embankment of east side you can watch the Torcello’s island

The old fort with cruciform plan demolished by the ital- ians to build a new one

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SAN GIACOMO IN PALUDO

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Location, morphological description,architectural features, history and potentialAlessandro Bonadio

Location

The island of San Giacomo in Paludo is at the cen-tre of the lagoon north of Venice along the Canal Scomenzera San Giacomo, the major artery that connects the historic centre of Venice and Mura-no and Burano, Torcello and Mazzorbo.Currently the island has no harbor fotr the vaporetto ACTV and to get there is the possibility that the requirement to obtain your own boat.The island is located near the historic city and is part of an existing urban circuit.The Canal of San Giacomo, which overlooks the island, is one of the main lines of communica-tion linking the lagoon, both from an economic standpoint and tourism, the historic centre with Murano, Mazzorbo, Burano and Torcello, and pro-vides the ability to insert in the island’s public transport system with the construction of a dock for the ferries and design of moorings for visitors or guests.

Access to the island is via the dock, there is no port for public transport

Bird’s view from east of San Giacomo in Paludo

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View of the lagoon with San Giacomo in Paludo

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Description of morphological and architectural features

The island has an area of 12,000 square meters, it originally housed a hospital, later turned into a monastery (XI century) that was abandoned in the eighteenth century and finally demolished. Since 1810 the island was used as a powder wa-rehouse until 1961, when it was abandoned in 1993, the Magistrato alle Acque has taken steps to initiate the restoration of some parts of the island, which nevertheless has undergone, in re-cent decades a rapid and profound degradation; the degradation, in addition to military buildings, has also affected the wall. Now the island is un-der license from the State of the environmental association VAS (Verdi Ambiente e Società).San Giacomo in Paludo has a quadrangular form emphasized from the brick wall that runs along the perimeter and gives a clear and regular figure.The island is invested by the constant wave ac-tion caused by wind from North-East (the Bora) of up to 80 km / h. These phenomena typical of the Venetian lagoon created such damage that it requires surgery to strengthen and rebuild the embankment wall collapsed on the east side of enlarging the surface and preserving the archaeo-logical remains of a medieval secure degradation.The buildings are nineteenth-century constrution, with the exception of the cavana, artifact of the seventeenth century, we witness from the Coro-

Plan of San Giacomo in Paludo

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nelli’s engravings of his isolario in 1696. All ar-chitectural structures are built in brick with wood trusses.The officers’ barracks, located along the perime-ter of the island on the northwest corner, is the first building you see coming from Venice, on the north side, towards the canal, we find an arc with a neo gothical aedicuale contains a copy of the relief of the Madonna e il Bambino, until a few years ago the object of veneration for the locals, the original bas-relief is preserved in the Church of Mazzorbo.The three largest buildings, built by the Austrians and the Italians also used as military depots, are arranged with respect to the longitudinal dimen-sion of the island, two horizontally and one verti-cally. The two horizontal position buildings were

The ammunition depot is surrounded by a wire mesh that served as a faraday cage, to prevent lightning set fire to the building

The structure of the gunpowder storage

Front North-west of the gunpowder storage

The wooden pillars that supported the ammu-nition dumps buinlings were called “Cristi”,

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used as deposits of gunpowder, and had thick walls 1.50 meters to defend the attacks from fire and explosives. A wire mesh wrapped around the volume of powder acting as a Faraday cage that is, from the electrical conductor capable of isola-ting the internal environment from any electro-static field present at its outside, to prevent fires caused by lightning.The third building military depot used for sto-ring equipment had a floor was raised above the ground to prevent that the moisture could attack the army ammunition depots.In addition to the buildings are three to five me-ters high embankments, created to protect the deposits of ammunition from the cannon attacks and to prevent the explosion of a powder magazi-ne would inevitably involve the other.

Enviroment

The island has an advanced state of degradation, primarily determined by the total removal of the vegetation operated by the military for security reasons, he left the field open, once abandoned the island, a typical weed flora.In the state tree dominate the Alianto (Alianthus top) and black Robinia (Robina pseudoacacia); the ivy (Hedera helix) and bramble (Rubus Sp) are the typical vegetation of the forest floor. The Alianto tends to grow especially in the vicinity of the buildings, while the Robinia predominates in the sunniest areas. There is a plane tree (Platanus hybrida) now close to death because they stifled by the thick vegetation. There are some plants of elder (Sambucus nigra) and fig (Ficus carica).

The volumes coming out of the barracksare latrine used by military officers

The barracks from the lagoon

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Hystory

The island, over the centuries, changed its fun-ction several times, changing from a hospice for pilgrims to the convent for nuns and then to the Franciscans, finally become a military powder and be abandoned in the second half of the twen-tieth century.On the island of San Giacomo in Paludo in the presence of permanent settlements of the early Middle Ages, if not earlier, is confirmed in some recent archaeological finds.In 1046 AD, during the reign of the doge Pie-ro Polani, Orso Badoer granted to Giovanni Tron Mazzorbo a stretch of marshland between Mura-no and Burano in order to build a home help to the militias and pilgrims to the Holy Land. The hospital dedicated to San Giacomo Maggiore had two functions: on the one hand stay travelers and the other hand to keep them far enough away from the city for reasons of health and public or-der.In 1238 the Cistercian nuns transformed in the convent became the hospice, expanding the pe-rimeter of the island with further concessions of the Church of Murano, the beginning of ‘400 the structures of the settlement, inhabited by only two professed, were in complete disrepair and used as a quarry for building materials.After various vicissitudes, the island in 1469, was aggregated to the Venetian convent of Santa Ma-ria dei Frari, the Friars Minor Conventual they pro-vided to build a chapel on the island from scratch, a small monastery, a guesthouse and other local

View of San Giacomo in Palduoengraving by Coronelli XVII century

Plan of the provisional military Genius of the Venetian

Republic 1840

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The three batteries were installed by the Austrians when there was still the convent

The “cavana” was in the existing plant on the island since the beginning, when there was the Convent

The tracks led the ammunition from the entrance to the depots

Plan of the austrian fort in 1840

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children, giving instead rent in the private garden and the vineyard which guaranteed a decent an-nual income.The church of the thirteenth century, twenty-three long Venetian steps (one Venetian steps is 1,74 meters) and a width of ten (so its 40 meters long and 17,3 meters width), had three altars, the altar dedicated to San Giacomo, the other, respec-tively, the one to the Vergine Maria and the San Giovanni Battista, Francesco, Antonio and Bernar-dino, the other to San Nicola di Bari.In 1778 the Superintendent of Venetian artillery, Domenico Gasparoni, looking for a safe place to concentrate the powder keg of Venice, perhaps the memory of the terrible explosion occurred eighty years earlier in Sant’Angelo alle Polveri, found in San Giacomo, now without even the mo-nastery, the place for this destination. The plan was never realized because of high costs and long lead times too.In early 1800, following the Napoleonic decrees on religious orders, the Friary was suppressed and demolished, and the island of San Giacomo was used for military purposes.In 1849 a plan of the military genius of the Pro-visional Republic of Venice, saw the presence of three gun batteries, installed in the corners, north east and south.At the beginning of this century the eighteenth-century project of operation by San Giacomo in powder is finally realized, and in fact, removed the batteries, powder magazines can accommodate three separate ramparts: two for the gunpowder, and a third for storage of lightweight equipment.After the Second World War, the island lost its

The nuns & monk’s tombs

The old pier was located to the east of the island and used for loading / unloading of ammu-nition

the old tombs of monks and nuns were found during an archaeological campaign in the north-west of the island

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strategic importance, so that the military admi-nistration in 1960 gave up the property in 1961 and abandoned it.In September 1975, the Venezia Biennale of The-atre directed by Franco Quadri used one of the military bunkers, adapted for the occasion, to ac-commodate the representation “Apocalipsis Cum Figuris” directed by Jerzy Grotowsky, the theater and various seminars held by the director himself, shortly after, from ‘military building housed the representations were illegally removed the floor boards.After the Biennale of Theatre, San Giacomo was again abandoned and forgotten until, in 1993, began the restoration work by the Magistrato alle Acque, and these included the restoration of the small building overlooking the canal with the shrine containing the relief of neo-Gothic Madon-na, the cavana and a stretch of shore.In September 2011 the island was reopened to the public for the festival “Isole in Rete” and has hosted theatrical and musical events.

Internal view of the ammonition warehouse

Photo of the island in 1950

The coverage of the de-posit was made of wood trusses. This building used to store ammuni-tion exhausted.

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Potential

There are many potential island of San Giacomo in Paludo, justifying the hypothesis of intervention that goes beyond the mere occupation of the site for pur-poses of custody.It ‘s the only one of the deserted islands of the Ve-netian Lagoon that is easily accessible using existing transmission lines, and its geographical location in the barycentric system of the northern lagoon makes it a site of primary importance in the management of any initiative for environment, recreational, museum and a place of hospitality.San Giacomo in Paludo may become the new port of the north lagoon, strategic location and the tourist point of departure for excursions.The presence of archaeological sites, with wide green spaces, and the fact that the island is located along the migratory routes of some birds can equip it also features bird watching, nature observatory and labo-ratory teaching.St. James in Paludo has been the subject of various proposals for the creation of a future park, planned by planning schemes.Buildings on the island have already been used, inclu-ding the Venice Biennale, as exhibition halls and are suitable for the type and volume of use to a social and collective. This will allow us to reactivate the island, giving new meaning to become a new actor on the stage lagoon.

The island afler the restaration

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The embankments divide the ammunition dumps to prevent the fire could be propagated building to building

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The walls are 1,80 m thick in order to protect the ammonition dump

The “cavana”: the only monastery building left

The floor was raised above the ground in order to preserve the ammonition from the humidy

The old walls erased from the wind and the wind and the waves

the embankment was high up to 5 meters

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1 Gunpowder storage 2 Storage lightweight equipment3 Officer military barrack 4 Boathouse “cavana”5 aedicule. of the low relief6 Agricultural storage

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Axonometry of San Giacomo in Paludo

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The walls are 1,80 m thick in order to protect the ammonition dump

The “cavana”: the only monastery building left

The floor was raised above the ground in order to preserve the ammonition from the humidy

The old walls erased from the wind and the wind and the waves

the embankment was high up to 5 meters

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1 Gunpowder storage 2 Storage lightweight equipment3 Officer military barrack 4 Boathouse “cavana”5 aedicule. of the low relief6 Agricultural storage

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Lagoon maps

Starting point (marine terminal)

San Giacomo in Paludo

Mazzorbetto fort

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Torcello

Burano

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GlossaryAcqua alta Typical phenomenon in the venetian lagoon – with woodpe ckers of tide very pronounced that provoke flood in the insular urban area

Altana small wooden terraces decorating the rooftops with flowers; they are often situated on fine columns of bricks but the rest always seems very fragile Arsenale Shipyard for the building and repair of warship. In the vene tian dialect, “arzanà”, from the Arab ‘dar as-sin-ah”

Bacaro Small restaurant where you can still eat exclusively typical dishes and enjoy “cicheti”

Batteria It’s a work fortified in which find place one or more pieces of artillery. The battery discovery consists of a pitch rectangular protected on three sides by a parapet of stone and cement which are made niches or riservette for ammunition and can accommodate from four to six pieces of artillery. This type of battery has the advantage of using an extended shooting range, but does not offer great shelter for the crew and armament.

Barene islets formed by sediments brought in by the sea and wild and somewhat varied vegetation grows there, they are covered with water during high tide.

Blockhaus Small defensive building. Once, the block-haus, was designa ted as a block-square building made of logs and surrounded by a moat whose excavation land was placed on the roof and vertical and horizontal served as protection

Bora Rather violent east-north-east wind which blows on Adriatic

Bragòsso Most commonly-used fishing-boat in the northern Adriatic. It measured from 9 to 16 metres, with a width a quarter of its length, with a flat bottom with a slight longitudinal sheer

Bricole Posts planted in the lagoon to indicate the channels to boats. To move away from it almost certainly means running ashore.

Bucintoro Boat of the doges, covered with gold leaf, of course, as all that was affiliated with the doges was wealth. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by Napoleon.

Ca’ abbreviation of Casa, the home. “Casa” corresponds to a palace: Ca’ d’Oro, Ca’ Pesaro, Ca’ Dario...

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Calle Venetia for “street” or “road”, generally long and narrow

Campo Venetian for “piazza” (square), the “campo” almost systemati cally has the right to a church.

Campielli Small venetian square with ‘calle’ leading off them

Casamatta Work of permanent fortification intended to accommodate one or more weapons of the infantry or artillery piece, the casamatta is an element of a complex defensive system

Cassa di colmata A reclaimed aera of the lagoon, but never used by industry

Cavana Typical shelter for lagoon boats

Cicheti Snacks and appetisers

Cinta work of permanent fortification built around a fortress or a walled city to allow the defenders to fight a dominant position, protected by walls or embankments

Corte common courtyards for several houses. They often reach it by a little calle or a porch.

Embankment Work of defense consists of a rising edge of land which was constituted by a quay for riflemen and, at times, for light artillery; ran at the foot within the covered road, outside the ditch. In the bastioned fortification was the work external running around the ramparts and the crescent. Entrenched camps constituted the boundary of the continuous body of the square.

Doge Term indicating the highest authority in the Venetian and Genoan Republics until the 18th century. From the Latin ‘dux’

Felze Removable cabin on gondolas

Fondaco Depot or warehous. From the Arab ‘funduq’

Fondamenta Road parallel to a canal. The name comes from its function as a foundation for the palaces that line the canal

Fontego Venetian for depot or warehouse, synonym of ‘fondaco’

Foresti People from outside, coming from another place

Fortification Military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensi- ve works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasin-

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gly complex designs. The term is derived from the Latin fortis (“strong”) and facere (“to make”).

Fronte The complex of high buildings on each side of the polygon basis. Each edge could be constituted by a single straight section or more sections arranged in line in broken.Ghebbo Small, not very deep, natural canal thus unsuitable with navi gation in the Venetian lagoon but which on the other hand makes it possible to help with the regulation of the tides.

Gondola Original form:gondolam. Of unknow origin, possibly Latin cymbula (small boat) or cuncula (shell); or Greek kundy (small ship) or kuntò-helas (push)

Lavoriero A special structure used for fishing

Masegni Typical paving stone on the streets of Venice.

Magistrato Important position of public authority to manage alle acque and protect the lagoon of Venice

Murazzi A wall 20 km long, made from blocks of istria stone set vertically on the lagoon side and at an angle fa cing the Adriatic

Onda lunga Surging mass of water moved by the wind or other forces. In the Venice area, caused by the passage of motorboat in the canals

Procuratie Office/ residence of the Procurator of St. Mark

Procurator Title used by various official and magistrates with administrative roles, mostly at a higher levelProto Director of works in Venice. Sansovino was a proto of San Marco, during the XVIcent.

Ridotto Permanent work constructed within another building to allow the defender, who finds refuge in it, to prolong resistance. The area, generally built in defense, where the troops fall back to the operations, to delay the surrender of a resistance to the end

Rio terà Old canal, now filled in and used as pedestian way

Riva Stretch of paved street flanking a canal

River flood beds Strips of even land between the bank and the bed of a River that stay in dry season

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Rondella Tower of circular plan of large diameter, separated from the boundary towards the ditch. To defend themselves from the increasing power of artillery towers increased in diameter, be came more prominent in the ditch. Were also lowered in height and deprived of projecting structures to make them less vulne rable to artillery fire. Deprived defense pouncing so this was compensated with the flanking walls obtained by detaching and connecting with them through the bottom of the steps were repaired by two muri.These rooms on several floors were opened to the throat of a courtyard to give vent to the smoke and decrease the sound of shots.

Ruga Street flanked on both sides by shops, workshop and houses

Sacca An artificial island

Salizada Wide important road, paved since ancient times

Sensa Ascension. The day that Christians celebrated Jesus Christ’s ascension to Heaven

Serenissima Official name of the Venetian Republic

Sestieri The six districts of Venice: Castello, Canareggio, Dorsoduro, San Marco, San Polo, Santa Croce

Sottoportego Streets that passes under a building

Silting up Introduction of turbid waters in a hollow in the ground in order to fill via precipitation of suspended materials. In italian: “colmata”.

Squero Boatyard where small wooden boats are built, especially gondolas

Tombolo cylindrical padded cushion used for sewing

Trabàcolo well-known transport boat about twenty metres long, with two masts and bowsprit, widely used in all areas of the northern Adriatic. It was built following the classic rules of naval con struction with timbers on a keel.

Vaporetto Venetian bus, a steam bus that is rather ancient. It is the public transport of Venice, the transport company is call ACTV

Velme Areas without vegetation and normally submerged, only emerging at low type. Litterally: “humps”

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Grillo S., Le Fortificazioni Lagunari Napoleoniche 1805-1814. Disegni della Biblioteca del servizio storico dell’Armata di terra. Castello di Vincennes. Parigi, I.U.A.V., D.S.T.R., Venezia, 1989.

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Stefinlongo G.B., Il giardino del doge, i giardini del popolo: studi sul restauro urbano e sul recupero e riuso delle isole e delle fortificazioni della Laguna di Venezia, Sotto-marina, Il leggio libreria editrice, Chioggia, 1998

Zanlorenzi C. (a cura di), I forti di Mestre. Storia di un campo trincerato, a cura di-Stampato a cura del Coordinamento per il recupero del Campo Trincerato di Mestre ed Altri.,Venezia, 1997.

Zorzi A., Venezia Scomparsa, Electa, Venezia, 1971.

Web Sites

www.bingmaps.com

www.campotrincerato.it

www.comune.venezia.it

www.fortificazioni.net

www.googlemaps.com

www.quagliati.altervista.org

www.regione.veneto.it

www.salve.it

www.venicearchipelago.com

www.wikipedia.com

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Contents

Introduction 4Mauro Marzo

Fortified lagoon 8History of ideas of fortification in the Lagoon of VeniceMarco Ballarin

Mazzorbetto fort 20Location, morphological description, architectural features,history and potentialAlessandro Bonadio

San Giacomo in Paludo 36Location, morphological description, architectural features, history and potential Alessandro Bonadio

Lagoon Maps 52

Glossary 54

Bibliography 58

Finished printing in the month of april 2012 on behalf of Università Iuav di Venezia