The Venetian Arsenal is an ancient complex of shipyards and workshops
that forms a very large part of the island city of Venice, at its
eastern end. It was the heart of the Venetian naval industry starting
from the 12th century and is linked to the most flourishing period in
the life of the Serenissima: thanks to the imposing ships built here,
the Venetian Republic managed to counter the Ottomans in the Aegean Sea
and conquer the routes of Northern Europe .
Surrounded by 3km of
red brick crenellated walls, it employed a maximum of 16,000 people at
its peak in operation and can be regarded, for its size, its age and the
ingenuity of its design and operation (vi ships were built on an
assembly line since the 16th century) as one of the first real
industrial complexes in Europe.
The Arsenale complex is the only
example of a shipyard and arms factory which has always maintained the
same nature and the same function, for seven centuries, even after the
decline of the Republic of Venice. Ownership of most of the Arsenal has,
since 2013, passed to the Municipality of Venice, while the remaining
part remains with the Italian Navy, present in the area with its
Institute of Maritime Military Studies and the Naval History Museum.
About a quarter of the large complex is used by the Venice Biennale for
its contemporary art exhibitions.
The Italian etymology "arsenal" derives from the Arabic
daras-sina'ah, that is "house of industry", "house of trade". The term,
known to the Marcians through their frequent commercial contacts with
the Muslim world, would have passed into the Venetian dialect as
"darzanà", then corrupted over time into the form "arzanà", also
mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his Inferno, therefore, through "
arzanàl" and "arsenàl", to the final Italian form of "arsenale".
The form "darzanà", then "dàrsena", has instead remained to indicate the
internal stretches of water of the arsenal; the current meaning of the
etymology "dock" derives from this use.
The Venice Arsenal was one of the first maritime arsenals ever built
in Italy. Before the Middle Ages and the emergence of the maritime
republics, the only stable naval arsenal built on the peninsula was the
Greek arsenal of Syracuse. In fact, the Romans did not have real stable
maritime arsenals, as they built the fleet only in case of need: there
were only two navalia on the banks of the Tiber, one in the Campo Marzio
and the other at the foot of the Aventine.
Thanks to its
organization, the Venice arsenal anticipated the modern concept of the
factory by a few centuries, understood as a production complex in which
specialized workers carry out the individual assembly operations of a
product in succession, along an assembly line and using standard
components . It represents the most important example of a large
production complex with a centralized structure of the pre-industrial
economy.
Origins
«Which one in the arzanà de' Viniziani
winter boils the
tenacious pitch
to repalm their unhealthy wood,
ché navicar non
ponno - in that place
who makes new wood and who restores
the
coasts to what he traveled the most;
who replies from proda and who
from stern;
others make oars and others turn seamstresses;
who
will reverberate and artimon rintoppa -;
such, not by fire but by
divine art,
boils down there a thick pegola,
that encircled the
bank on all sides.
(Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXI, vv.
7-18)
The Venice arsenal was built for the need to give greater
development to shipbuilding, a strategic activity for the Serenissima, a
maritime power destined to control part of the Mediterranean. The
location of the arsenal area, between the convent areas of San Pietro di
Castello and the parish of San Giovanni in Bragora (Darsena Vecchia),
was decided both due to the availability of a large aquatic area near
the basin of San Marco (lake of the monastery of San Daniele) both
because the arrival point of the rafts was nearby, which transported the
necessary timber from the woods of Cadore and Montello, using the spring
waters of the Piave river. There is no precise date of foundation: the
news, often reported, that it was founded in the early 12th century, in
1104 (immediately after the first crusade), by Doge Ordelafo Faliero is
derived from a fake commemorative medal made in the 19th century.
However, the first nucleus of the Arsenale Vecchio dates back to the
second half of the 12th century; the first documentation dates back to
1220, with the map of the Chronologia Magna, which testifies that the
complex, surrounded by crenellated walls, consisted of two rows of
squeri (covered yards) on the sides of the Old Dock, communicating with
the basin of San Marco only through a narrow channel. The small size of
the complex in the thirteenth century was proportional to the needs of
the city at the time: the seasonal maintenance of a small naval
squadron, a reserve of wood (built in 1265) and hemp, a deposit for
tools and weapons dating back to 1278.
The first enlargement of
the Arsenale Vecchio took place in the years from about 1225 to 1304,
with the addition of an area to the east of the fortified perimeter. The
palaces of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise were also built (renovated in
the fifteenth century) which were the residences of the members of the
Arsenal Regiment, the institutional body which had the task of governing
and supervising the complex, consisting of three Venetian patricians who
remained in office for 32 months.
Later, between about 1304 and
1322, the first factory of the Corderie della Tana (Casa del canevo) was
built for the production of ropes and the Volto del Bucintoro on the Old
dock. In the area known as Tana the cordarie, rebuilt several times,
naval ropes were produced on an industrial level, a precious asset in
antiquity, at the lowest possible cost, with the advantage of remaining
independent from third parties in the event of war. The raw material
(hemp, also used for the caulking of the hulls) mainly came from the
mouth of the Don River, on the Sea of Azov, where the Venetians had
signed important trade agreements. The system guaranteed the absence of
waste: the strings came out of the string factory through holes, to then
be cut to the required size, instead of being packaged in standard
lengths. This ensured good savings for the Republic and at the same time
allowed the ropes to be sold to foreign ships in transit at a lower
price than their competitors.
In these three centuries, always surrounded by an aura of secrecy,
the arsenal produced the galleys and, starting from the first half of
the 16th century, the large galleasses, an enlarged version armed with
artillery batteries and arquebuses, which determined the victory of
Christianity in the battle of Lepanto in 1571, and became the fulcrum of
Venetian development. The agile fleet of galleys and galleasses, which
originally constituted the naval force of the Republic, was called
Armata Slim, then joined by a large Armata of larger ships with sails
only (barze and galleons), armed with cannons of greater caliber ,
usually freighters chartered by the Republic.
The second
important expansion of the arsenal complex took place in 1325-26,
following the increased naval needs of the city: the "Lago di San
Daniele" (annexed to the monastery of the same name to the east of the
arsenal) and built the New Arsenal (la Darsena Nuova), thus reaching an
area of 138,600 m2. The Stradal de Campagna was added (southern strip of
the new connecting dock) on which the oar workshops were built, as well
as deposits for pitch, cables, rigging, timber, nails, anchors and
chains. In the same period a new channel was opened to connect the
Darsena Vecchia and the Darsena Nuova, the Rio delle Stoppare; the
perimeter of the walls of the Arsenale Vecchio was extended to the west
in 1329. In 1344 some building sites were completed on the northern bank
of the Darsena Nuova, in the walled area called Isolotto.
Subsequently, between 1377 and 1440, the House of dust was built,
equipped with a millstone, in the Campagna area and the two control
towers for the water access for the public part of the construction
site, these towers also had the function of crane to embark the heaviest
loads on the galleys. The Foundries were built around 1390. In 1440 a
serious accident occurred: the Casa della Polvere exploded, causing
extensive damage to the buildings of the Arsenale Nuovo and making it
necessary to start a new phase of work: between 1443 and 1449 houses and
shops were rebuilt in the Campagna area and new squeri were built on the
southern bank of the Arsenale Nuovo.
After the fall of
Constantinople (1453) and the consequent threat posed by the Ottoman
fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, the arsenal underwent important war
strengthening and production structures works; to commemorate these
works, the monumental Porta di Terra (porta da tera) or Porta Magna was
erected. The portal, built between 1457 and 1460 on the model of the
Roman triumphal arches, became the first example of Renaissance
architecture in the city. The shipyards to the west of the Old Dock were
restored and rebuilt between 1453 and 1456; in 1456-58 two canopies were
added for water construction sites, called "water faces", and a series
of contiguous "land faces", aligned on the south bank of the New Dock,
depicted in a perspective view by Jacopo de' Barbari; around 1460 the
construction of the first original nucleus of the weapons rooms and the
artillery workshop was also started in the Stradal de Campagna.
Starting from 1473 and for a century until 1573, the third major phase
of development of the arsenal took place, in which the last expansions
were made by merging various surrounding marshy lands, with the
construction of external residences for the workers, public ovens and
warehouses for cereals (the Darsena Nuovissima) and galleys, which led
the arsenal to cover an area of almost 24 hectares. Of particular
interest for its architectural features is the Squero delle Gaggiandre,
built in 1573 and attributed to Jacopo Sansovino.
The foundations
for the Darsena Nuovissima were completed (according to the perspective
view of Jacopo de' Barbari) in 1476-80 and around 1508 the construction
of yards and sheds began in that place, completed around 1545. In 1516
the canals were opened connection of the saws between the Darsena Nuova
with the Nuovissima and of the Bucintoro between the Darsena Vecchia and
the Nuova.
After the war of the League of Cambrai and the Holy
League (1508 - 1516), in order to strengthen the war, from 1518 the
construction activity resumed in the area of the Arsenale Nuovissimo; to
enhance iron working and the production of bronze artillery, new
foundries were built between 1524 and 1526, next to the large rope
factory; the foundries were distributed in five buildings separated from
each other by a narrow passage to avoid the spread of fire in the event
of an explosion and fire; the largest of the reverberatory furnaces
could melt a few tons of metal. Between 1525 and 1528 the construction
sites of the western arm of the dock called Novissimetta were completed;
in 1528 the building of the walls and the watchtowers of the northern
part of the arsenal began.
In the years between 1535 and 1540 the
fourth phase of expansion of the arsenal takes place, through the
appropriation of an area owned by the convent of Celestia, at the
north-western end of the Arsenale Nuovissimo, placing there the
activities related to the processing and storage of gunpowder; the area
was connected to the Arsenale Vecchio in 1564, after having acquired
other land from the same convent, which brought the already large area
dedicated to powders from a total of 5000 to 7800 m². Around 1555-56 a
new facade was erected for the Volto del Bucintoro, expanding the squero
to house the ceremonial boat of the same name, rebuilt between 1525 and
1526. Between 1561 and 1564 it was built close to the walls overlooking
the Rio di San Daniele, the artillery workshop - a building about 180 m
long, still existing - and the fifteenth-century armory rooms were
restructured. The close collaboration between artillerymen, smelters and
powder manufacturers, inside and outside the arsenal, contributed to the
affirmation of the Venetian war industry, in the first places in Europe
for almost two centuries, with the invention of lethal weapons such as
mortars hunched over, huge siege bombards, culverins, falcons and battle
falconets. A decree of the Commission of Ten and of the Provveditore
alle artillerie of 1565 makes explicit reference to the presence of
"artillery factories" distributed in various warehouses in the arsenal.
Between 1566 and 1573 the last phase of the resumption of works was
carried out in the Arsenale Nuovissimo, with new covered construction
sites in the Isolotto and two large aquatic construction sites ("water
faces") at the canne or Gaggiandre (1573); between 1566 and 1568 the
tezon delle sieghe e dei legnomi was built facing west, towards the
Galeazze canal and next to the Novissimetta, where the Squadratori
building is located, overlooking a small basin for the conservation of
oak wood . In 1569 there was a powerful explosion of dust in the
Celestia area, causing extensive damage to the walls, some buildings in
the shipyards and the convent of Celestia. A fifth expansion dates back
to the same period, with the excavation of the dock of the galeazze,
covered yards for the construction of this new type of battle vessel,
which proved to be decisive in obtaining victory during the battle of
Lepanto in 1571.
The construction of the small temple of the
Madonna dell'Arsenale dates back to 1577, leaning against the eastern
tower of the water gate of the Arsenale and demolished in 1809; between
about 1579 and 1785 the architect Antonio da Ponte rebuilt the building
of the Corderie; in 1591 the monumental access portal to the weapons
rooms and the artillery workshop was built, which closes the Stradal de
Campagna.
During the 17th century an important transformation of naval
technology took place, to which the Arsenale reacted by gradually
adapting its structures: the system of the seabed of the docks and
canals was in fact revised according to the renewed construction
requirements. The first launch of a warship of the Northern European
type took place in 1667. Between 1684 and 1745 the roofs of the
shipyards on the western bank of the Arsenale Nuovissimo and those
of the Novissimetta were raised, in order to build new large
vessels. Between 1686 and 1692 the rio and the entrance to the
Arsenale were enlarged to facilitate the passage of boats, by
demolishing and rebuilding the two thirteenth-century towers. The
workers of the Arsenal were so coveted that the Tsar of Russia Peter
I the Great asked the Doge to send various technicians for the
construction of the Galleys in preparation for the Russo-Turkish war
on the Azov Sea.
Around 1750 the building of the Squadratori
was built to a design by Giuseppe Scalfarotto, on the eastern bank
of the Galeazze canal; in 1778 in one of the yards adjacent to the
building, the Hall of Models was built, designed by Gian Maria
Maffioletti, founder and director of the school of naval
architecture with Simone Stratico, a unique reality in 18th-19th
century Europe.
Even if the Venetian naval dominance had now
waned, the Arsenale remained a very important reality, also for
related industries. The supply of hemp, indispensable for rope
making, had given rise above all in Emilia to an entire production
cycle from cultivation to the subsequent phases of industrial
dimensions.
With the treaty of Campoformio (1797) which put an end to the
Venetian Republic, the French troops entered the city and sacked the
Arsenale, removing the cannons from the artillery park and the weapons
to transfer them to France. The cannons, the most beautiful armor and
firearms were shipped across the Alps, while the others were melted
down. Over 5,000 cannons that were part of the armory - museum were
melted down, which housed the ancient weapons, the cannons, the military
glories and the stony stones in iron and copper that were the pride of
the Arsenal and the result of the victories of the Republic during
centuries. Les Invalides houses the famous Musée de l'Armée, one of the
largest art and military history museums in the world, which exhibits a
36-pound bronze cannon of Venetian manufacture, not intended for
military use, cast by Serenissima to celebrate the alliance between the
kingdom of Denmark and Norway and the Republic of Venice, whose emblems
are placed to adorn the weapon itself. The cannon in question bears the
casting date, Anno Salutis. MDCCVIII, and was taken during the
Napoleonic looting. In the period of the first French occupation, which
lasted until the following year, Napoleon put all the ships in the
arsenal out of use, except those that would have taken part in the war
together with the French fleet, and dismissed all 2,000 arsenals; he
also abolished any distinction between merchant marine and war navy,
thus demilitarizing the fleet. According to the historian Mackay Quynn,
the Bucintoro, the flagship launched in 1728, was burned to obtain gold
decorations to pay the army.
At the disposal of the Admiral
Marquis Amilcare Paolucci delle Roncole, the arsenal was partially
rearranged between 1798 and 1805, during the first Austrian government,
during which the damaged ships were repaired and shipbuilding was
restarted.
The subsequent Napoleonic government of the Kingdom of
Italy (1805-1814), of which Venice became a part, used the Arsenale as
the main naval base of the imperial fleet in the Adriatic, making
various structural modifications to put it back into activity and with a
view to increasing productivity. The Napoleonics radically changed the
organization of the arsenal, to adapt it to the French method of
shipbuilding. Between 1806 and 1810 the covered shipyards of the islet
towards the Darsena Nuovissima were demolished, replacing them with four
slipways for the construction of vessels, and the new water gate towards
San Pietro di Castello was opened. The sixth expansion of the arsenal,
in 1810, was carried out by incorporating the Celestia complex and
opening, to the east of the Arsenale Nuovissimo, the Porta Nova canal,
which was flanked by the homonymous tower designed by the French
engineer Pierre Lessan.
In 1814, with the fall of the Napoleonic
Kingdom of Italy, Venice and the entire Veneto returned to the Austrian
Empire for the next fifty years and the Arsenal became the most
important of the Austro-Venetian Imperial Navy
(Österreichische-Venezianische Kriegsmarine). In 1819 a closing gate was
placed at the Porta Nova gate and a mobile bridge was added to connect
the Gaggiandre and the row of the Nuovissima. In 1821 the fortified
circle in the Celestia area was completed and in 1824 the south-western
side of the complex was closed with a new portion of the wall between
the rowers' workshops and the Foundries.
Following some
subsidence of the banks, between 1828 and 1831 the Rio dell'Arsenale
underwent restoration works; the foundations of the two access towers
were also reclaimed and the eastern tower straightened, which had been
weakened by the demolition of the small temple of the Madonna in 1809;
in 1828 the last section of the perimeter wall was built on the southern
side of the Celestia church; close to the Foundries the building of the
guardhouse of the Maritime Treasury was built in 1829; the buildings
located south of the Arsenale Nuovo were restored and adapted as
workshops, laboratories and warehouses. Between 1835 and 1836 the
workshop for the coopers and the oarmen's workshop was built to the
north of the old wall separating the Arsenale Vecchio from Celestia;
between the last squero of the Arsenale Vecchio and the south wall of
the coopers' workshop a neo-Gothic turret was erected, designed by
Giovanni Casoni.
The last major development of the Arsenale took place during the
Kingdom of Italy of Savoy, of which Venice had become part in 1866
following the third war of independence. The Kingdom of Italy wanted to
re-propose the arsenal as an important naval base in the upper Adriatic:
Venice had in fact been chosen by the government as the main base of the
Adriatic fleet to the detriment of Ancona, the previous headquarters of
the Adriatic navy.
The seventh and penultimate expansion of the
arsenal took place between 1872 and 1878, with important transformation
works that modified the appearance and functionality of the complex,
according to a general project prepared by Felice Martini. Between 1872
and 1879 two coal tems were built in the area of the island of the
Virgins, included in the Arsenale by burying the Rio della Guerra. In
1874 the Fairbairn gooseneck crane was installed on the south side of
the Great Docks. In 1874-75 the construction sites in the Novissimetta
area and part of the Squadratori building were demolished to allow the
construction of two large open airports; between 1876 and 1880 the islet
was excavated and its shipyards demolished. Following various projects
to allow the launching of modern iron ships, the pre-existing structures
between the Darsena Nuova and the Nuovissima were excavated, joining the
two basins and building the current Darsena Grande in their place. At
the same time, to avoid submersion, the ground level was slightly raised
(about 70 cm). The design work of Giuseppe Morando, then director of the
military engineers of Venice, was significant.
Around 1880 the
Congegnatori Adjustatori building was built, in the Stradal Campagna,
and the new naval base command, which took the place of the general
store building; the transformation into modern workshops and warehouses
of the old construction sites in the northern area of the Nuovissima
also took place. In 1883 the large 160 ton Armstrong Mitchell hydraulic
crane was installed near the Islet shipyards. Around 1900 a quay was
built in the row of the Nuovissima and therefore the fronts of the
outhouses were reduced, lowered and closed, transformed into workshops
and warehouses; moreover, the Lamierini workshops were built in the area
of the basins. The excavation of the third dry dock for the construction
of monocaliber battleships dates back to 1910-15.
The eighth and
last expansion of the arsenal took place in 1916, with the construction
of the "Casermette" area, a series of small buildings in a narrow
triangle of land between the walls and the shore used as accommodation
for submariners.
In 1920 a great fire in the buildings of the
Arsenale Vecchio completely destroyed six ancient sheds on the western
side.
During the Second World War the Arsenal was occupied by
German troops and numerous anti-aircraft bunkers were built in
reinforced concrete.
With the end of the Second World War, the Arsenal began a slow
decline, by now unable to meet the enormous needs of the modern naval
forces, with a drastic reduction in shipbuilding activities, up to its
partial abandonment. The Arsenale area remained largely closed to
civilian use for decades, being used only partially by the Navy since,
in 1957, the command of the military maritime department of the Upper
Adriatic was once again transferred to Ancona. Since the end of the 20th
century, however, attempts have been made to restore importance to the
Arsenale, inserting some cultural activities there and posing the
problem of its recovery, in any case problematic given the vastness of
the area. Some large rooms of the complex (Corderie, Artiglierie,
Gaggiandre, Tese Cinquecentesche, Tese delle Vergini) have been donated
since 1999 to the Venice Biennale for its contemporary art exhibitions;
there are also some small shipbuilding activities and other minor
activities.
Since 2000, the Interregional Provveditorato for
public works of the Triveneto has carried out a program of interventions
for the safety and restoration of the buildings in the northern part of
the Arsenale. The Casermette area, which remained a particularly
degraded area of the city for many years, was handed over by the Marina
to the Municipality in 2015 to build the new courthouse. In 2003, on the
initiative of the Italian State Property Agency and the Municipality of
Venice, La Società Arsenale spa was born with the aim of reviving it,
promoting, activating and managing important enhancement projects. In
August 2012, the compendium constituting the Venice arsenal, with the
exception of the portions used by the Ministry of Defense for its
specific institutional tasks, due to its historical and environmental
characteristics, was transferred to the Municipality of Venice, with a
which ensures its inalienability and indivisibility. From 6 February
2013 the ownership of most of the Arsenale area (59% equal to 274,000
m²) passed from state property to the Municipality of Venice, which set
up the Arsenale Office to recover and revitalize the Arsenale
Compendium, excluding the portion remained the property of the Navy (41%
of the entire area equal to 194,000 m², including the internal body of
water).