Venesia Facts

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🤷🏻‍♂️ "...cioè?"
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👉🏻 e i suoi simboli: la .🦁💙

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The gondola has become almost a synonym for : an elegant black rowing boat, that gently moves through the canals, driven by expert gondoliers.
The gondola is unique, like the city where it was born.
But where are gondolas made?
Gondolas are handmade in the "squèro", which is precisely the construction site of the gondola. The origin of the name is uncertain: it is supposed to come from the Greek "eskharion", which means "building site".
Unfortunately, there are only a few "squèri" left in the city today; among the most famous are: the squero of San Trovaso and the of the Tramontin family on Rio de l'Avogaria.
The squeri resemble mountain houses, since both the "squeraroli" (the carpenters) and the wood used for the boats came from Cadore region.
The gondola is pure craftsmanship and is composed of about 280 pieces, made of 8 different types of wood (durmast, elm, fir, cherry, larch, mahogany, lime wood and walnut). Its dimensions are ALMOST the same as they were in the 1700s: 11m long, 1.40m wide.
The gondola is asymmetrical: the left side is longer. This allows the gondolier to better control it: the weight of the gondolier is in fact balanced by the gondola's inclination, and he can easily row standing on one side at the stern.
This solution, however, was adopted only from the end of the 1800s onwards. Before the gondola was smaller and symmetrical.
The oars of the gondola have a flat blade, they are about 4.20m long, and they rest on the "forcola", a type of oarlock that offers 8 different supporting points for the oar.
At the gondola's prow stands the "ferro da prua" or "dolfin", created to give the boat equilibrium and to counter-balance it.
According to a modern interpretation,the iron prow-head of the gondola would represent the city and its lagoon. In fact, the S shape would represent
the Grand Canal, and the 6 teeth (or prongs) would represent the "sestieri".
Did you know that gondolas were brightly colored until 1600s?
Then, an official decree established that the only allowed color could be black. This decision was taken to avoid competitions between nobles to have the most lavishly decorated and colorful gondola.
The gondolas were also equipped with a cabin, the "felze", which was used to protect passengers from bad weather, to shelter them from teh scorching sun, or simply to create more privacy.
Today, the "felze" is no longer used, but it can still be admired on the gondola displayed in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.

👉🏻 , e il suo leone 🦁
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As we all know, the patron saint of Venice is Saint Mark, celebrated on April 25th.
Its symbol is a winged lion, which has become the emblem of the city itself.

But the first patron of the city was not St. Mark, but St. Theodore of Amasea (Tòdaro for the Venetians).
This is still witnessed by the column in St. Mark's Square near the Marciana Library, surmounted by Todaro standing on a dragon (the other is obviously surmounted by the winged lion).

Tòdaro remained the only patron saint of Venice until 828, when the Venetian merchants Buono from Malamocco and Rustico from Torcello stole the remains of St. Mark from Alexandria in Egypt and brought them to the city hiding them in a basket among pork meat (to avoid thorough controls by the Muslims).

There's another myth strengthening the cult of St. Mark: according to it, an angel in the shape of a winged lion appeared to the evangelist when he was traveling in the lagoon and told him: "Pax tibi, Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescat corpus tuum." (Peace be with you, Mark, my evangelist. Here, your body will rest).
The first sentence can still be read today on the pages of the book placed under the lion's paw.

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