Veneto is a region located in north-eastern Italy and with the capital Venice. Thanks to a remarkable industrial development, it is today one of the richest regions of Italy. Thanks to its landscape, historical, artistic and architectural heritage, with over 15.7 million visitors and 63.4 million tourists a year, it is the most visited region in Italy (according to a 2011 statistic).
Veneto borders Friuli-Venezia Giulia to the east, Austria to the
north, Trentino-Alto Adige to the north-west, Lombardy to the west,
Emilia-Romagna to the south and is bordered by the Adriatic Sea .
Venetian Plain — The Venetian plain is crossed by the Adige and the
Piave. The Polesine is the southern part of the plain which is found in
several points below sea level. The main cities of the Veneto region,
Vicenza, Verona, Padua, Treviso are located in the plain.
We
distinguish three areas:
Veneto coast — The Veneto coast is a region
of lagoons. It extends from the Po delta to Caorle. The port of Chioggia
is on the southern stretch of coast. Numerous seaside resorts line the
low and sandy coasts.
Hilly area goes from Bassano del Grappa to
Vittorio Veneto. It also includes isolated reliefs in the plain such as
the Euganean Hills and the Berici Hills
Mountainous area - consists
of the Venetian Pre-Alps and the Venetian Dolomites which affect the
province of Belluno. The regions of the Veneto Dolomites are Cadore,
Agordino and Val di Zoldo, all in the upper Belluno area.
Even today, in addition to Italian, a considerable part of the population speaks Veneto (in a highly Italianized form and with very significant variations based on the area). In some very limited areas Emilian, Friulian, Ladin, Bavarian and Cimbrian are also spoken in some municipalities.
Carnival — Venice Carnival, Veneto Carnival and Malo Carnival.
Belluno - The territory is located in the north and is characterized
by the presence of the Dolomites and a purely mountain culture, very
popular with lovers of hiking and skiing.
Paduan
Veneto coast —
Includes the coast facing the Adriatic and the Venice Lagoon.
Treviso
brand
Vicenza
Polesine
Veronese
Belluno - The city is considered the gateway to the Dolomites. Its
territory boasts renowned tourist centers including Cortina d'Ampezzo,
the Ski Civetta with Selva di Cadore, Alleghe and Zoldo Alto, Auronzo di
Cadore, Falcade, Arabba, Alpe del Nevegal and in general the areas of
Cadore and Agordino.
Padua - Its predominantly flat
territory includes the Euganean Hills and the Euganean Spas, whose main
center is Abano Terme.
Rovigo — Meeting
point between Venetian and Ferrarese culture.
Treviso
— Capital of the "joyful and loving Marca".
Venice — Capital of the region, Venice
is a city of unique charm that attracts visitors from every corner of
the earth.
Verona — the city of Romeo
and Juliet and the Roman Arena.
Vicenza —
the city of Palladio. The Vicentine Pre-Alps with the Small Dolomites
(Pasubio massif, Sengio Alto chain, Carega group and Tre Croci chain),
the Plateau group (Seven Municipalities Plateau and Folgaria Plateau,
Tonezza del Cimone, Florentines, Lavarone and Luserna) and the Lessini
Mountains.
Bardolino - Location known for the production of wine.
Bassano del
Grappa — Known for the distillation of grappa and for the ceramic
factories but also, and above all, for the "Bassano bridge"; important
battle point in WWII.
Marostica — Known for the medieval castle, the
chess game with living characters.
Monte Pasubio — known for the
Strada delle 52 Gallerie, for the Sacred area (combat sites of the First
World War).
Monte Civetta district: Alleghe — Palafavera, Selva di Cadore and Val
di Zoldo.
Cortina d'Ampezzo
— renowned ski resort.
Falcade
Caorle — seaside resort famous for its picturesque old town.
Heraclea
Bibione — bathing and thermal center.
Jesolo — seaside
resort known for its entertainment.
Garda — resort on the lake of the
same name.
Abano Terme
Montegrotto Terme
Recoaro Terme
Veneto Regional Park of the Po Delta
Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park
Regional Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites
Regional Park of the
Euganean Hills
Regional Natural Park of the River Sile
By plane
The main airport of the region is Venice's Marco Polo,
currently the third largest airport in Italy, while Verona's Valerio
Catullo airport is dedicated to domestic flights, and Treviso's San
Giuseppe airport to low-cost flights.
By car
The Veneto is
crossed by the A4 motorway (Turin-Trieste), by the A22
(Brennero-Modena), by the A13 (Bologna-Padua), by the A27
(Venice-Belluno), by the A31 (Valdastico Piovene-Rocchette - Agugliaro
The opening of the missing section is expected at the end of August 2015
so as to join the so-called Transpolesana near Rovigo).
Piazza San Marco, the canals, the palaces and the carnival of Venice
Island of Murano known for its glass craftsmanship, and the colorful
island of Burano
Arena di Verona and Juliet's balcony in Verona
Church of Sant'Antonio, Church of Santa Giustina, Scrovegni Chapel and
Botanical Garden in Padua
Palladian villas
Wine Museum Museum
dedicated to the world of wine in Bardolino (Verona)
Itineraries
Cycle path of the Adige valley
Gardaland amusement park in Castelnuovo del Garda (Verona)
artemartours.it Excursions by boat along the canals of Padua, the
Riviera del Brenta, the islands of the Venetian lagoon.
Typical dishes and products of the Veneto region
Cod Vicentina
Casunziei
Venetian liver
Pasta and beans
Radicchio risotto
rice and peas
Sopa coada
Fried or stewed bisata with polenta
Sardee in saór
Tiramesu
Pliers
Veronese boiled meat with pearà
Among the best-known Venetian products worthy of note are the DOP
Asiago and Montasio and Piave and Taleggio cheeses, the Treviso IGP
radicchio, the Vicentina sopressa DOP, the white asparagus of Cimadolmo
IGP, the Vialone nano Veronese rice IGP and the cherries of Marostica
PGI.
Drinks
Veneto is the largest and most productive region
of the country in terms of wine. There are really many DOC wines from
Veneto, while among the best known DOGC wines of the region, Amarone
della Valpolicella, Bardolino Superiore, Conegliano Valdobbiadene
Prosecco and Soave Superiore stand out. In addition to these, we should
also mention: Asolo Prosecco, Bagnoli Friularo, Colli di Conegliano,
Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio, Lison, Montello Rosso, Piave Malanotte,
Recioto della Valpolicella, Recioto di Gambellara and Recioto di Soave.
Morainic hills of Lake Garda — On the first folds of the Po valley
that becomes a hill, where the large lake basin of Lake Garda begins,
the route passes through towns and cities that were under the dominion
of the Gonzaga, Venice, Scaliger, and then became theater of the bloody
battles of the Risorgimento which were the prelude to the unification of
Italy. To the tourist, historical and naturalistic importance, the area
combines an oenological interest as an area of production of the wines
of the hills, tokai, merlot and claret.
Places of the battle of
Solferino and San Martino — The itinerary runs through the places where
the historic battle of Solferino and San Martino took place on 24 June
1859.
Walled cities of the Veneto. An itinerary to discover the
strongholds and history of the Veneto.
Cammino di Bardolino — An
itinerary to discover the hinterland of Lake Garda.
Hills of Prosecco
di Conegliano and Valdobbiadene
In Veneto crime is low.
The flag of Veneto, adopted with the regional law n. 56 of 20 May
1975, synthesizes several centuries of Venetian history in symbols,
colors and shapes.
The main element of the flag and coat of arms
is the lion of San Marco, which has been the symbol of the Republic of
Venice for several centuries. San Marco was adopted as patron saint of
the city and of the Republic, replacing the Greek San Todaro in 828,
following the transfer to Venice from Alexandria of Egypt of the body of
the evangelist by two merchants, Rustego da Torcello and Bon da
Malamocco . Starting from this date, the saint was depicted in a human
figure in public coats of arms and banners.
The first ascertained
representation of the winged lion of Saint Mark, which since the first
centuries after Christ was associated with the figure of the evangelist,
dates back to 1261, when with the fall of the Latin Empire of
Constantinople Venice forged closer relations with Egypt, land whose
sultan, Baybars, raised a lion andante (i.e. seen from the side) as his
coat of arms. In this era the pre-eminent representation was that of the
lion in moleca (or moeca, i.e. seen from the front with wings crowning
him). Starting from the 15th century, banners began to be displayed in
which the classic Marcian lion passant with book and sword stood out: in
the same period this iconography was generally adopted as a symbol of
the Republic. If the book was open it was a symbol of peace, if it was
closed instead of war.
Veneto is a region that includes many forms of natural landscape:
from the coastal strip overlooking the Adriatic to the Veneto-Friuli
plain, which then rises in the twelve reliefs of the Euganean and Berici
hills, up to the Alps in the northernmost part including most of the
Dolomites. With an area of 18390 km², Veneto is the eighth Italian
region by surface area. The northernmost point is Cima Vanscuro (on the
border with Austria, there called Pfannspitze) and the southernmost
point is Punta di Bacucco. Its territory is morphologically very varied,
with a prevalence of plains (56.4%).
The land borders are
identified by natural elements of a hydrographic type (Po, Tagliamento,
Livenza), but also of an orographic type (such as the buttresses to the
north of the Asiago plateau, or Mount Baldo). Another geographical
element characterizing the Veneto region is the hydrographic basin of
the Piave almost entirely enclosed within the borders of the region,
since the Piave's sources passed together with Sappada in the nearby
region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The highest peak in the region is the
Marmolada (3343 m) located in the Province of Belluno on the border with
Trentino-Alto Adige.
Alpine passes
There are numerous Dolomite
passes that cross the regional mountain area: Passo di Giau, Passo di
Valparola, Passo Fedaia, Passo di Falzarego, Passo di Campolongo, Passo
Duran, Forcella Staulanza, Passo della Mauria, Passo di Monte Croce di
Comelico, Passo Tre Croci, Xomo Pass, Cibiana Pass, Buole Pass, San
Boldo Pass, Forcella Lavardet, Croce d'Aune Pass, Forcella Aurine, Cima
Sappada, Sella di Rioda.
Rivers
Bit
Adige
Brent
Piave
Livence
Bacchiglione
Sile
Lake Garda
Misurina lake
Santa Croce lake
Revine lakes
From the cold climate of the Dolomites to the Mediterranean one of
the Adriatic coast, Veneto summarizes all the temperatures of Europe in
an area of 18390 km².
Lake Garda is a case in itself: thanks to
its size, the surrounding climate, relatively mild throughout the year,
has sub-Mediterranean characteristics with mild winters and very hot
summers.
The climate of Veneto is of the sub-continental type,
but with the mitigating agent of the sea and the chain of the Alps to
protect it from the north winds, it is overall temperate.
Among
the various main climatic zones we find: the Alpine region,
characterized by cool summers and cold temperatures in winter with
frequent snowfalls, the hilly area and part of the flat area where the
climate is milder, most of the plain where the climate is of the humid
temperate type, i.e. with relatively cold and humid winters and long hot
and muggy summers.
In Veneto there is a protected national park and five regional ones.
They are:
Belluno Dolomites National Park
Regional Natural Park of
the Ampezzo Dolomites
Regional Park of the Euganean Hills
Regional
natural park of Lessinia
Regional Natural Park of the River Sile
Po Delta Regional Park
In addition to these, there are also six
Regional Nature Reserves, fourteen State Nature Reserves, two Wetlands
of International Importance, nine Regional State Forests and several
Regional Parks and Reserves of local interest.
Already inhabited in prehistoric times, initially a settlement of the
Euganeans, it was occupied in the protohistoric era by the people of the
Veneti, according to the classical legend originating from the Troas and
Paphlagonia in Anatolia, today Turkey. Many important cities of the
region originate from Venetian settlements, for example Padua,
Concordia, Oderzo (among the settlements attested in more ancient times,
9th-8th century BC), Este, Treviso, Belluno, Altino, Vicenza and
probably Verona and Adria.
The Anatolian provenance of the
Adriatic Veneti is not accepted by all ancient authors and is still the
subject of discussion today. Ancient sources hand down the existence of
populations called Veneti from Brittany to Spain, the Romans called Lake
Constance in Switzerland Lacus Veneticus, Epirus in Greece, Anatolia and
various toponyms would be connected to these populations (e.g. the
Vindelicia , region corresponding to present-day Bavaria, Vindebona -
present-day Vienna). According to some scholars, these populations
testify to the existence of a single Indo-European civilization which
would have extended over the entire north-western Adriatic, and could be
traced back to the culture of the urn fields.
The Romanization
process of Venetia took place gradually: Veneti and Romans were in fact
allies starting from the 3rd century BC: in 225-222 BC. Veneti and
Cenomani formed a military alliance with Rome against the Insubres, the
Boii and the Gesati, providing according to Polybius a contingent of
20,000 men. The Gauls were defeated in the battle of Clastidium in 222.
In 216 Venetian militias fought in Cannae against Hannibal.
In
181 BC. the dedication of the Roman colony of Aquileia, built on the
edge of the Venetian territory, further strengthened the traditional
relations of collaboration with the Romans and after the social war in
89 BC. several Venetian cities obtained the ius Latii. In 49 BC. the
populations of the territory obtained full Roman citizenship from Julius
Caesar.
In the Augustan era, the territory was included in Regio
X Venetia et Histria, which had Aquileia as its main centre. Under
Diocletian it became a province Venetiae et Histriae extending its
limits up to the river Adda.
The Christianization of the region
took place starting from Aquileia, where Christianity had probably
arrived by sea. According to tradition, it was St. Mark the Evangelist
who founded the church of Aquileia. He would also have sent the Greek
Prosdocimo to evangelize Padua, Asolo, Vicenza, Treviso, Altino and
Este. A Christian community from Roman Africa would have contributed to
the evangelization of Verona; also African is San Zeno, patron saint of
the city.
The barbarian invasions and the fall of the Western Empire
The
first infiltrations of Germanic tribes into the territory of the region
took place as early as 168-169 AD. with the sacking of Oderzo by the
Quadi and the Marcomanni. However, it was from the 5th century onwards
that the incursions became repeated and more devastating, with the Huns,
the Heruli, and finally with Theodoric's Ostrogoths, who established
their kingdom over the Veneto and Italy in 493.
Nonetheless, the
regional framework still remained essentially unitary; language,
writing, institutions, agricultural and manufacturing techniques,
although weakened, survived the impact of this barbaric wave.
The Gothic domination ended brutally in the mid-sixth century
following the invasion of the Byzantine armies led by the generals
Narses and Belisarius.
Shortly afterwards, in 568 AD, however, the
formidable and devastating invasion of the Lombards took place, which
led to the subtraction of a large part of northern Italy from the
imperial dominion. It was in that phase that a separation was created in
Veneto between the continental area, under Lombard rule, and the coastal
area, still dependent on the Byzantine Empire. At the same time, the
Tricapitoline schism caused a further rift also in the religious field,
destined to last for the entire following century.
The Venetian
lands belonging to the new Lombard kingdom were divided between the
duchies of Vicenza, Verona and Ceneda. The social fabric of the Mainland
experienced a rapid decline; a certain continuity of city life was
guaranteed by the bishops, who became authoritative references in the
moral, cultural and social fields. There arose monastic foundations
linked to or dependent on the abbey of Bobbio which created the basis
for the development of agriculture, with the spread of vineyards,
chestnut groves, olive groves, mills and oil mills. The commercial and
communication routes were reopened: oil, salt, timber, meat, etc. Among
these the great Piorato di San Colombano di Bardolino, with the
territory of Lake Garda, the rivers Adige, Mincio, the area of
Valpolicella and the Verona area, among the various wine and oil
productions of the monastic territory, the fishponds of the Garda, whose
fish was marketed thanks to preservation in salt and oil.
The
Byzantine area, on the other hand, was first united in 580 with the
surviving northern territories in forming the Annonaria eparchy, to then
be made an autonomous province dependent on the Exarchate of Italy in
584 with the name of Venetia maritima. From the hinterland, the
Roman-Venetian political and religious authorities, together with part
of the populations, found refuge in the main lagoon centres, in
particular Grado, Caorle, Eraclea, Torcello, Malamocco, Rialto, Olivolo,
Chioggia, Cavarzere, in addition to the now disappeared Ammiana and
Constantiacus. These islands, which had already begun to develop for a
century, therefore went on to constitute, in 697, during the reign of
the emperor Leonzio, the duchy of Venice.
To define the formal
separation between the two worlds (although a strong osmosis always
continued to exist) it was necessary to define the boundaries
(terminatio) between the Ducatus Venetiarum and the Regnum
Langobardorum, signed by King Liutprand and the first doge of the
Republic of Venice Paoluccio Anaphaestus. The lagoon territory took on
ever greater characteristics of independence from the central Byzantine
power, until, with the Lombard conquest of Ravenna in 751, the political
dependence on Byzantium became little more than formal. In the meantime
the seat of the Dux was transferred from Eraclea to the edge of the
mainland in the less accessible Metamauco/Malamocco.
At the end of the eighth century the Lombard kingdom was overwhelmed
by the Franks of Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire on Christmas night in the 1800s. His son, Pepin, also attempted
the conquest of the coastal territories, but, rejected, he also had to
formally recognize the independence of the Venetian Duchy in the 811
treaty with the Byzantine Empire. Within that federation of lagoon
centers and territories, from Grado to Loreo, known as Dogado, Venice
asserted itself, an imposing urban organism that developed around the
Rialto merchant pole, to which it was transferred in 812 from Malamocco,
destroyed by Pipino, the capital.
Even from a religious point of
view, in 827 a division was sanctioned between the world of continental
Veneto and maritime Venice: the bishops of the mainland continued to be
subject to the metropolitan see of Aquileia, while the dense network of
new diocesan sees which arose in the lagoon recognized as referent the
patriarchate of Grado.
The dynastic problems within the Frankish
empire and the terrible aggressions of the Hungarians in the 900s caused
a vacuum of power and rampant conflict that afflicted the mainland
Veneto until the mid-10th century. Imperial authority was finally
re-established by Otto I: in 962 he aggregated a vast territory of
north-eastern Italy to the duchy of Bavaria and subsequently, in 976 to
the duchy of Carinthia. The body that resulted, having the purpose of
linking Germany and Italy, was called, from the name of its main city,
Marca di Verona. In 1027, the territory of the diocese of Trento
detached from this, which organized itself into an ecclesiastical
principality, and Friuli in 1077, which began its own independent
historical development under the authority of the Patriarchs of
Aquileia. The ties between the Marca Veronese and the Empire were
strengthened by the presence in the territory of various feudal
dynasties of Germanic origin: among the most famous, destined to play an
important role in the following centuries, the Este, the Ezzelini, the
Da Camino, the From Carrara.
Starting from the first decades after 1000, throughout the Veneto we
witnessed an economic take-off and a recovery of social life in the main
cities, which began to exercise hegemonic control over their
countryside.
From the end of the tenth century, then, Venice began
its maritime expansion in the Adriatic, of which it began to take the
form of a hegemonic power until it became the Gulf of Venice, and to
enormously increase its privileges and trade in the East.
Simultaneously with the economic development, in the Marca Veronese
(which starting from 1200 began to be identified with the name of Marca
Trevisana), there was a weakening of the feudal system, characterized by
the progressive emergence of free communes: among the most important
Verona (1136) , Padua (1138), Treviso and Vicenza.
The Mainland
became less and less subject to the effective control of the German
emperors.
The thirteenth century was marked by the expansion of
Venetian power throughout the eastern Mediterranean, culminating in the
Fourth Crusade and the creation of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in
1205, in which Venice was guaranteed dominion over a quarter and a half
of the empire of Romania. The Stato da Mar came to include, in addition
to the territories of Istria and Dalmatia, the Ionian islands, Crete,
Cyprus, and a whole series of bases and strongholds in the Peloponnese,
in the Aegean and in Anatolia. Although the sea was the primary source
of its wealth, Venice never lost interest in the hinterland: it
maintained strong ties in particular with the Treviso and Padua areas,
supported the Veronese League and then joined the Lombard League,
assuming a very prestigious role of mediator (and at the same time of
third force) between Pope Alexander III and the emperor Federico
Barbarossa, with the reconciliation celebrated in San Marco in 1177
(Peace of Venice).
In the thirteenth century we witnessed
throughout the mainland the transformation of free municipalities into
powerful lordships fighting each other for regional hegemony. The first
to emerge was the lordship of Ezzelino III da Romano, who managed to
conquer a large part of central-northern Veneto. Treviso fell into the
hands of the da Caminos, in Verona the lords of della Scala took over in
1262, becoming the capital of a powerful state, which at its peak
crossed the Apennines, reaching as far as Lucca.
Although Venice had the center of its economic interests in the sea,
it always kept alive the ties with its hinterland, exerting a strong
attraction on the tormented cities of the Marca Trevigiana. Already in
1291 Motta di Livenza passed to the republic, the first territory of the
mainland to give itself to the government of Venice. However, it was
from the fourteenth century onwards that the Serenissima began to
intervene more and more decisively in regional politics, above all to
prevent the powerful Carrara state from threatening its land and river
communication routes. In 1318, in fact, Padua had lost its communal
freedom, becoming the lordship of the da Carrara family, who soon
entered into conflict with Venice and Verona.
The growing power
and influence of the republic aroused the jealousy of its neighbours,
who formed a formidable coalition in 1379 which brought together the
Carraras, the Duke of Austria, the King of Hungary, the Patriarchate of
Aquileia and Genoa, unleashing against Venice what would go down in
history as the War of Chioggia and ended in 1381 with the victory on the
sea against Genoa and the loss of Treviso by land (obtained in 1339),
ceded to the Duke of Austria.
The imminent threat of the
Carraresi, to which was added the Visconti state, which took possession
of a large part of the Veneto between 1387 and 1390, did not, however,
diminish.
At first the republic reacted with decisions to the aims of
Francesco II of Carrara, recovering Treviso in 1388 and then in rapid
succession practically all the lands of the Treviso brand: on 28 April
1404, the Veneto Senate accepted the dedication of Vicenza, a few days
later it was the vault of Cologna (May 7), Belluno (May 18), Bassano
(June 10), Feltre (June 15), and then from the Altopiano dei Sette
Comuni on February 20, 1405 and Verona on June 22. Finally, on 22
November Padua also fell and the last Carraras ended their lives in
captivity.
The unity of the Veneto was practically recomposed.
For these lands, in addition to the end of the conflicts and the
establishment of a stable and respected government, dedications to the
Serenissima usually meant the concession of particular statutes of
autonomy which guaranteed, in exchange for the act of subjection to
Venice and the acceptance of governors sent by the Venetian Senate, the
maintenance of most of the pre-existing institutions and laws: the Stato
da Tera was born, in fact, as a sort of federal state ante litteram.
During the sixteenth century, the Republic of Venice further
expanded its possessions, including Cadore and Friuli in 1420, followed
in 1428 by Brescia, Bergamo and Crema and conquering Polesine, already
occupied in 1405 and definitively wrested from the Duke of Ferrara in
1484.
From the 16th to the 18th century: the Pax Veneta
In the second
half of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, Venice continued its expansionist policy, bringing the Lion of
San Marco to Romagna, southern Trentino, Gorizia, Trieste and even
Puglia. On the eve of the war of 1509, the Venetian republic, between
Stato da Mar and Stato da Tera, constituted a multi-ethnic empire
inhabited by Venetians, Lombards, Friulians, Istrians, Romagnas,
Dalmatians, Croats, Albanians, Apulians, Greeks and Cypriots.
In
1508, following the defeat by the Venetians of the emperor of Austria
who lost Trieste and Gorizia, an anti-Venetian coalition was formed
under the impulse of Pope Julius II, from whom Venice had taken away the
cities of Romagna, known as the League of Cambrai, which declared war on
the republic. Venice reacted by mobilizing the army and putting
Bartolomeo d'Alviano at its head. On 14 May 1509 at Agnadello in the
Crema area, the Venetian troops were routed by the army of Louis XII of
France: in a few days most of the State of Tera was occupied by the
enemy.
Thanks to diplomacy, which knew how to exploit and stoke
the opposition in the field of associates, and to the military victories
of the reorganized army (among these that of Marignano, in which the
Venetian cavalry, which came to the aid of the French infantry, allowed
Francesco I to achieve a victory over the Swiss troops), the republic
reconquered a large part of the mainland, returning to the borders of
the late fifteenth century. The territory of Ampezzano was lost, which
remained Austrian until 1918. After the long war period, in 1530 a
period of development began which lasted, without significant
interruptions, for almost three centuries until 1797.
The decline
of trade and the maritime empire of the Serenissima that began in the
sixteenth century was accompanied by a growing attention of the
patriciate for landed property on the mainland, progressively reducing
the dynamism of the ruling class and leading more and more towards the
social and political stagnation of the republic.
If in the
seventeenth century Venice was still able to fight the Turks to defend
the last maritime possessions and to promote a partial reorganization of
the land army, reaching a more definitive arrangement of the disputed
borders with Austria, the eighteenth century marked the definitive
decline of the political model that had governed the fate of the state
for a millennium.
At the end of the 18th century, revolutionary and bourgeois ferments
also swept through the Venetian republic, while Napoleon Bonaparte's
troops burst in from the Alps, descending into the Italian campaign.
Venice refused to take sides, declaring its neutrality and at the
same time refusing to mobilize troops to defend its territories. Veneto
became a battlefield between the opposing sides. The mainland was
eventually occupied by French troops, who were allowed to enter the
cities.
The explosive situation thus created exploded with the
Veronese Easter, a rebellion against the French presence which provided
Napoleon with the pretext for overthrowing the aristocratic government.
In a futile attempt to avoid the inevitable, Venice demobilized the
troops, retreating to the Dogado, but under the threat of invasion of
Venice itself, on May 12, 1797, the Major Council decreed the end of the
republic, ceding its powers to the democratic Municipality.
A
series of looting and violence by the French followed, eager to obtain
the maximum possible booty from the Venetian lands and at the same time
to provide the least possible advantage to Austria, to which those lands
were destined since the preliminary peace agreement then formalized with
the treaty of Campoformio.
Veneto therefore remained under
Austrian administration from 1797 to 1805 when, following the Peace of
Pressburg, it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy under French
domination, within which it remained for a decade. With the fall of
Napoleon, Austrian rule was re-established with the establishment of the
Lombardo-Veneto Kingdom.
However, the sixty years of Habsburg
domination were characterized by the Risorgimento uprisings, culminating
in the rebellions of Vicenza, Padua, Treviso and the establishment of
the Republic of San Marco in Venice in 1848. While Verona became one of
the cornerstones of the Austrian Quadrilateral, the revolutionary
uprisings in the cities of the hinterland were repressed by the imperial
army. Despite the hoped-for union with the Kingdom of Sardinia, the
military setbacks suffered by the Piedmontese army during the first war
of independence left the Marciana republic isolated, which, despite
resistance against the troops of Josef Radetzky, finally had to
capitulate on 24 August 1849.
At the end of the second war of
independence, in 1859, the Austrians still held the Veneto: having
arrived at the gates of Verona, in fact, the Franco-Piedmontese army was
arrested by the signing of the armistice of Villafranca by Napoleon III.
The union of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy took place in 1866 after
the third war of independence. Although Italy was defeated by the
Austro-Venetian army by land at Custoza and by sea at Lissa, the
Prussian victory in the Battle of Sadowa led to peace agreements between
the main European powers which provided for the cession of Veneto not to
Italy, country from which it did not consider itself defeated, but to
France, on the understanding that Napoleon III would hand it over to
Vittorio Emanuele II after organizing a plebiscite.
The peace
treaty of Vienna signed on October 3, 1866 provided verbatim that the
cession of Veneto (with Mantua and Udine) to the Kingdom of Italy had to
be subject to the consent of the duly consulted populations.
Napoleon III proceeded to organize the plebiscite of the Venetian
provinces and Mantua, in compliance with the peace treaty, according to
which: "The citizens of the liberated Italian provinces, summoned to the
rallies on 21 and 22 October last, declared the union with the Kingdom
of Italy with the constitutional monarchy of Vittorio Emanuele II".
However, Napoleon III was subjected to strong pressure from the Savoys
to cede the fortresses and military control of the region ahead of time
in anticipation of the outcome of the plebiscite and also to the
organization of the plebiscite itself. The Count of Gramont, who was
temporarily entrusted with the territory of today's Veneto, plus Mantua
and Friuli excluding Trieste, tried to respect his commitment. However,
the pressures induced Napoleon III to hand over the fortresses and to
let the troops of the Kingdom occupy Veneto even before a plebiscite was
held. The plebiscite was organized on 21 and 22 October 1866 with
universal male suffrage (ie only 30% of the population was called to the
polls). The result was 646,789 yes, 69 no, 567 null votes.
On 24 May 1915, Italy entered the First World War (the first cannon
shot fired from Fort Verena) alongside the Entente powers with the aim
of subtracting Austrian Friuli from the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the
city of Gorizia and the Venezia-Giulia, with Trieste, Istria and Fiume.
Veneto therefore became the rear of the very long front extending from
the Little Dolomites to the Dolomites, Carnia and the Karst plateau.
Treviso became the seat of the Intendenza of the Royal Army, while
various Higher Commands were established in Padua, including that of the
3rd Army, numerous logistic departments and the main military hospital
of the front.
The collapse of the front on the night of 24
October 1917, during the battle of Caporetto, suddenly transformed the
Venetian territory into the heart of the new front. Under the threat of
encirclement and total defeat, the army attempted a retreat which soon
turned into a rout. The road that threatened the Venetian capitals
appeared completely wide open for the imperial-royal Austro-Hungarian
army. In a desperate attempt to defend Venice and its precious naval
base, the Italian army attempted to reorganize first on the Livenza,
then settled on the Piave, where it engaged in a long battle of
resistance.
The territories north of the front therefore remained
in Austrian hands until 1918 and the final victory in the battle of
Vittorio Veneto.
The First World War left very serious damages on
the territory. Whole villages were erased along the Piave line, as well
as in the mountains (Asiago was completely razed to the ground) while
the countryside was uncultivated and depopulated.
The enormous
poverty left by the rubble of the war favored massive emigration, mostly
directed towards the countries of Latin America and other regions of
Italy.
The Second World War brought further destruction. After the armistice
of 8 September 1943, the territory was occupied by German troops. Verona
became one of the capitals of the CSR, with the establishment of
important military commands and some ministries. In this period enormous
destruction was caused by aerial bombardments (particularly ferocious
the one that struck and razed much of Treviso to the ground). And other
massive bombings on Padua and Verona and in particular Vicenza, which
was also almost razed to the ground. Enormous destruction was suffered
in particular by the industrial center of Marghera, repeatedly hit by
Allied bombings.
The Veneto territory then became a terrain for
guerrilla actions during the partisan resistance. With the unconditional
surrender of the German occupier on 29 April 1945, Veneto was finally
freed from Nazi-fascism.
On 2 June 1946, the participation of the Venetian population in the
referendum which sanctioned the passage from the monarchy to the
republic was massive. With the entry into force of the Constitution of
the Italian Republic on 1 January 1948, the new organization of the
state envisaged the creation of Veneto as a region with ordinary
statute.
After the war, emigration resumed involving America,
Europe and other regions of northern Italy.
An estimated
3,300,000 people emigrated in the years from 1876 to 1976 from Veneto,
in fact the Italian region with the greatest emigration in that period
(second is Campania, with 2,500,000).
During the fifties the
industrial activity of Porto Marghera began to recover from the
devastation caused by the conflict, starting to grow again, until it
reached its maximum expansion in the 1960s, when the industrial center
became one of the most important in Europe.
Since the 1960s,
there has been a proliferation of small and medium-sized enterprises in
Veneto.
The population of Veneto is not homogeneously distributed. If the
middle plain boasts the greatest densities (especially along the strip
that goes from Verona to Venice passing through Vicenza, Padua and
Treviso), the lower Veronese are less populated (except in the
quadrilateral including Bovolone, Isola della Scala, Nogara, Cerea and
Legnago ) and Polesine (especially after the 1951 flood). Even less
inhabited are the Pre-Alps and the mountains (the province of Belluno
shows the lowest densities), except for the high Vicenza area (with
Schio, Valdagno, Thiene, Bassano del Grappa) and Valbelluna. Since the
1980s there has been a widespread phenomenon throughout Northern Italy
of the depopulation of large cities (Venice with Mestre in the lead) in
favor of small and medium-sized municipalities in the peri-urban
"belts". This has led to considerable urban development and some have
noted the formation of a vast megalopolis which extends in particular
between Padua, Mestre and Treviso (the so-called PaTreVe or Triangolo
Veneto)[28]. The Censis annual report of 2008 speaks of a large
metropolitan region (GREM) of Veneto extending over 6679.6 km² which has
a population of 3 267 420 inhabitants and of a small metropolitan area
(PAM) of Verona extending over 1426 km² and with a population of 714 724
inhabitants.
The annual natural growth rate was one of the
highest in Italy, but it became negative for the first time since 1983.
Even if today this trend persists (and, indeed, has strengthened),
Veneto remains one of the regions of Northern Italy with the highest
birth rate. The phenomenon, however, varies considerably from province
to province, even if the resident population continues to grow due to
immigration from abroad, which has become significant since 1990.
From the end of the 19th century there was an intense emigration of
Venetians abroad due to the extreme poverty of the region. The
inhabitants of the Veneto moved particularly towards Australia,
Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. In fact, the Veneto was, until the
seventies, a land of emigration (over 3 million departures between 1870
and 1970) due to the poor peasant economy, not supported by important
industrial plants. Until fascism, the flows were directed especially to
Latin America (Brazil, Argentina); in the thirties the land reclamations
promoted by Mussolini brought the emigrants to Lazio (Latina) and
Sardinia (Mussolinia di Sardegna, today Arborea) and also to the Italian
colonies in Africa; after the Second World War, the currents moved
towards the industrial areas of Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, and
towards central Europe, especially after the Polesine flood in 1951
(which forced tens of thousands of people to leave their land ).
The remarkable development of industry starting from the seventies
transformed the Veneto from a land of emigration to a land of
immigration. More than the returns, there were many immigrants from the
South and later from abroad (North Africa, Eastern Europe), which made
Veneto the fifth region by number of inhabitants (after Lombardy,
Campania, Lazio and Sicily) and one of the first for number of resident
foreigners.