Description
The Arsenal of Venice is the old shipyard complex at the eastern end of the city, in the Castello district. Behind three kilometers of crenellated red-brick walls the Republic built its ships: at its best, up to sixteen thousand people worked here.
The whole covers 48 hectares, about 15% of the old city. It was one of the first true industrial complexes in Europe: ships were assembled in series as early as the sixteenth century. About a quarter of the complex now hosts the Biennale's contemporary art exhibitions, and another part the Italian Navy, with the Naval History Museum.
From the city side you enter through the Porta di Terra, from 1460, one of the first Renaissance works in Venice: it looks like a Roman triumphal arch. In front stand four stone lions, brought here in 1687, one of which comes from Delos.
On the wall to the right of the gate a bust of Dante recalls the poet's visit to Venice in 1321.
The Corderie, the rope works, occupy the south side: a very long building, built in 1303 and rebuilt in the late sixteenth century to a design by Antonio da Ponte. Ropes for the whole fleet were made here: it is 317 meters long, with two rows of columns dividing the interior into three aisles. It is one of the places most used by the Biennale.
The Gaggiandre are two great roofed docks on the water from 1568-1573, where the galleys rested. Around them are the basins, the inner canals where ships were fitted out one after another: the Darsena Vecchia, the Grande and the one of the Galeazze. The Gaggiandre are attributed to Jacopo Sansovino.
Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Arsenal filled with cranes: the 160-ton Armstrong hydraulic crane, working since 1885, tells of the last industrial phase.
For the Biennale there are also the Teatro alle Tese and the Giardino delle Vergini; in the Sale d'Armi, among the oldest parts, contemporary art is shown.
The workers were called arsenalotti, and the complex was surrounded by an aura of secrecy. They worked in sequence, with standard parts: an assembly line before its time. Timber came from the forests, hemp for the ropes from the mouth of the Don, on the Sea of Azov.
From these yards came the galleys and then the galleasses, enlarged versions armed with cannons, which counted at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The Bucintoro, the doge's ceremonial ship, was also kept here. The workforce was so sought after that Peter I of Russia turned to Venetian masters for his galleys.
With the fall of the Republic everything changed. In 1797 the last Bucintoro was torn apart and burned to recover its gold. The Arsenal, however, kept working for seven centuries, always as a shipyard.
Don't miss
• The Porta di Terra.
• The Corderie.
• The Gaggiandre.
Did you know?
• The word "arsenal" comes from Arabic, "house of industry", and was born precisely for this shipyard: Dante calls it "arzanà" in the Inferno.
• One of the lions in front of the gate has runic inscriptions on its flanks.
The whole covers 48 hectares, about 15% of the old city. It was one of the first true industrial complexes in Europe: ships were assembled in series as early as the sixteenth century. About a quarter of the complex now hosts the Biennale's contemporary art exhibitions, and another part the Italian Navy, with the Naval History Museum.
From the city side you enter through the Porta di Terra, from 1460, one of the first Renaissance works in Venice: it looks like a Roman triumphal arch. In front stand four stone lions, brought here in 1687, one of which comes from Delos.
On the wall to the right of the gate a bust of Dante recalls the poet's visit to Venice in 1321.
The Corderie, the rope works, occupy the south side: a very long building, built in 1303 and rebuilt in the late sixteenth century to a design by Antonio da Ponte. Ropes for the whole fleet were made here: it is 317 meters long, with two rows of columns dividing the interior into three aisles. It is one of the places most used by the Biennale.
The Gaggiandre are two great roofed docks on the water from 1568-1573, where the galleys rested. Around them are the basins, the inner canals where ships were fitted out one after another: the Darsena Vecchia, the Grande and the one of the Galeazze. The Gaggiandre are attributed to Jacopo Sansovino.
Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Arsenal filled with cranes: the 160-ton Armstrong hydraulic crane, working since 1885, tells of the last industrial phase.
For the Biennale there are also the Teatro alle Tese and the Giardino delle Vergini; in the Sale d'Armi, among the oldest parts, contemporary art is shown.
The workers were called arsenalotti, and the complex was surrounded by an aura of secrecy. They worked in sequence, with standard parts: an assembly line before its time. Timber came from the forests, hemp for the ropes from the mouth of the Don, on the Sea of Azov.
From these yards came the galleys and then the galleasses, enlarged versions armed with cannons, which counted at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The Bucintoro, the doge's ceremonial ship, was also kept here. The workforce was so sought after that Peter I of Russia turned to Venetian masters for his galleys.
With the fall of the Republic everything changed. In 1797 the last Bucintoro was torn apart and burned to recover its gold. The Arsenal, however, kept working for seven centuries, always as a shipyard.
Don't miss
• The Porta di Terra.
• The Corderie.
• The Gaggiandre.
Did you know?
• The word "arsenal" comes from Arabic, "house of industry", and was born precisely for this shipyard: Dante calls it "arzanà" in the Inferno.
• One of the lions in front of the gate has runic inscriptions on its flanks.