Description
The Grand Canal is Venice's main street: nearly four kilometers of water winding through the historic center in a big backward S, from the train station to the St Mark's Basin. On either side, a thousand years of palaces: for many, it is the most beautiful place in the city.
Between 30 and 70 meters wide, it touches five of the six sestieri and collects 45 smaller canals. Almost all the houses rise straight out of the water, with no sidewalks or fondamenta to walk along: to see them one after another you have to go by boat, vaporetto or gondola.
Along its banks you can count at least 170 palaces, and they read like a book on the history of architecture. The oldest are the Veneto-Byzantine fondaco houses, with a portico on the water for unloading goods and the merchant's warehouse beneath his home: Ca' Farsetti and Ca' Loredan, now the town hall, and Ca' Da Mosto.
Then comes the flamboyant Gothic, with marble tracery that looks like lace: the masterpiece is the Ca' d'Oro. The Renaissance has Ca' Vendramin Calergi by Mauro Codussi, now the Casino, and Sansovino's Palazzo Corner della Ca' Granda. The Baroque has Ca' Rezzonico and Ca' Pesaro by Baldassare Longhena.
Halfway along stands the Rialto Bridge, the only old one among the four pedestrian bridges over the canal, in the heart of the markets. Farther south, the Accademia Bridge leads toward the Gallerie, and at the mouth of the canal on the Basin rises the dome of the Basilica della Salute, one of the canal's landmarks.
To cross from one bank to the other without bridges there are the traghetti: big gondolas that carry up to fourteen people, such as San Tomà – Sant'Angelo or Santa Sofia – Pescaria. There used to be many more, back when getting around by gondola was normal.
Before it was a street, the canal was a river. Along the banks of the Rivus Altus, the "deep canal," even before the Romans the ancient Veneti lived on stilts, fishing and making salt. At the start of the 9th century the doge moved to Rialto, and trade came with him.
Patrician families competed to build the finest palace: the canal was the city's "true Golden Book." The most frenzied period came with the decline: the Republic, short of money, sold noble titles, and the new patricians wanted a palace on the water right away.
With the fall of the Republic, in 1797, everything stopped dead. You can see it in the unfinished facade of the church of San Marcuola and in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which never got beyond the ground floor: today it houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Every year, on the first Sunday of September, the canal fills with crowds for the Regata Storica: before the races, a procession in costume parades to recall the arrival in Venice of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, in 1489, in the wake of the Bucintoro.
Don't miss
• Ca' d'Oro.
• Rialto Bridge.
• Basilica della Salute.
• A traghetto across the canal.
• Regata Storica.
Did you know?
• For the Festa della Salute, on November 21, a temporary bridge of boats is set up across the canal.
• The Rialto fish market, in neo-Gothic style, replaced an iron structure the Venetians detested.
• So much for the "deep canal": today it is no more than five meters deep.
Between 30 and 70 meters wide, it touches five of the six sestieri and collects 45 smaller canals. Almost all the houses rise straight out of the water, with no sidewalks or fondamenta to walk along: to see them one after another you have to go by boat, vaporetto or gondola.
Along its banks you can count at least 170 palaces, and they read like a book on the history of architecture. The oldest are the Veneto-Byzantine fondaco houses, with a portico on the water for unloading goods and the merchant's warehouse beneath his home: Ca' Farsetti and Ca' Loredan, now the town hall, and Ca' Da Mosto.
Then comes the flamboyant Gothic, with marble tracery that looks like lace: the masterpiece is the Ca' d'Oro. The Renaissance has Ca' Vendramin Calergi by Mauro Codussi, now the Casino, and Sansovino's Palazzo Corner della Ca' Granda. The Baroque has Ca' Rezzonico and Ca' Pesaro by Baldassare Longhena.
Halfway along stands the Rialto Bridge, the only old one among the four pedestrian bridges over the canal, in the heart of the markets. Farther south, the Accademia Bridge leads toward the Gallerie, and at the mouth of the canal on the Basin rises the dome of the Basilica della Salute, one of the canal's landmarks.
To cross from one bank to the other without bridges there are the traghetti: big gondolas that carry up to fourteen people, such as San Tomà – Sant'Angelo or Santa Sofia – Pescaria. There used to be many more, back when getting around by gondola was normal.
Before it was a street, the canal was a river. Along the banks of the Rivus Altus, the "deep canal," even before the Romans the ancient Veneti lived on stilts, fishing and making salt. At the start of the 9th century the doge moved to Rialto, and trade came with him.
Patrician families competed to build the finest palace: the canal was the city's "true Golden Book." The most frenzied period came with the decline: the Republic, short of money, sold noble titles, and the new patricians wanted a palace on the water right away.
With the fall of the Republic, in 1797, everything stopped dead. You can see it in the unfinished facade of the church of San Marcuola and in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which never got beyond the ground floor: today it houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Every year, on the first Sunday of September, the canal fills with crowds for the Regata Storica: before the races, a procession in costume parades to recall the arrival in Venice of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, in 1489, in the wake of the Bucintoro.
Don't miss
• Ca' d'Oro.
• Rialto Bridge.
• Basilica della Salute.
• A traghetto across the canal.
• Regata Storica.
Did you know?
• For the Festa della Salute, on November 21, a temporary bridge of boats is set up across the canal.
• The Rialto fish market, in neo-Gothic style, replaced an iron structure the Venetians detested.
• So much for the "deep canal": today it is no more than five meters deep.