Discover Canals of Venice

Many buildings beside Venice's canals use timber-pile foundations, but construction varies by site, period and ground conditions. Closely spaced piles were driven into waterlogged lagoon sediments and supported timber platforms, foundation courses and masonry above. The oxygen-poor submerged environment slows biological decay; the wood did not simply petrify, and not every building follows an identical foundation section.

The palaces along the Grand Canal also record changing architectural preferences, from Veneto-Byzantine forms and Venetian Gothic tracery to Renaissance and Baroque façades. Their water entrances were functional front doors in a city where important arrivals took place by boat.

Four bridges now cross the Grand Canal: Rialto, Scalzi, Accademia and Costituzione. They belong to different periods and should be understood as additions to a route that historically depended heavily on boats and ferries.