Venice [antikvár]

THE CITY OF VENICE The City of Venice was founded on the islands of the Rivoalto (today's Rialto) in 810, when, as a result of unsettled conditions of life in the Lagoon, a group of men, headed by Agnello Partecipazio decided to leave Malamocco, their most important centre, and move to new islands in the heart of the lagoon. Not until then was Venice born in substance and in spirit. In point of fact, up till then the refugees from the mainland had considered their habitats in the Lagoon as merely temporary places of exile from the homes they had left during the Barbarian invasions. For a long time these people were linked to their regions of origin with the corresponding social, political and religious organizations, and the iands and wealth abandoned in haste. They had hoped to return quickly but as time went on their ties progressively loosened. The succeeding generations accepted the lagoon as their proper environment for the development of all facets of humán activity, and began to create their own way of life in harmony with the environment and the advantages which gradually revealed themselves. They created on these islets independent and secure centre's of power and wealth. The development of the inner lagoon was accompanied by a policy of territorial expansion, oftentimes bloody, in the mainland Veneto region, within the context of the vast and complex changes which marked the decline and fali of first the Román Empire and then the rise and ultimate breakdown of Byzantine civilization. From the outset the Lagoon was considered a Byzantine