The Venice Transformation, from an Overpopulated Industrial City to an Abandoned Touristic City

The Venice transformation, from an overpopulated industrial city to an abandoned touristic city Author: Armando Cepeda Guedea, master’s degree in urban planning at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Abstract The city is always a changing object which adapts to its society and economic needs. In the last 70 years the city of Venice has passed a transformation, from an overpopulated industrial city, to a city totally dependent on tourism with a population in continuos decline. Thus, with a documental and photographic review from the urban - architectural angle, gives a perspective on how the touristification can change the function of buildings and even the urban structure of a city. Key words: architecture, Venice, touristification, urban transformations, social changes, depopulation Resumen La ciudad es siempre un objeto cambiante que se adapta a su sociedad y necesidades económicas. En los últimos 70 años, la ciudad de Venecia ha pasado por una transformación, de una ciudad industrial sobre poblada, a una ciudad totalmente dependiente del turismo con una población en continuo declive. Así, con una revisión documental y fotográfica desde el ángulo urbano - arquitectónico, se consigue una perspectiva de cómo la turistificación puede cambiar la función de los edificios e incluso la estructura urbana de una ciudad. Palabras clave: arquitectura, Venecia, turistificación, transformaciones urbanas, cambios sociales, despoblación Introduction The present study aims to present how the buildings in the city of Venice and the urban structure in Venice was adapted from an industrial city in the first half of the XX century to a touristic center nowadays. The changes can be spotted in almost every part of the city, in where former factories are transformed into schools or hotels, or antique Venetian palaces transformed into museums, touristic housing or commercial stores. The urban structure has also changed with new urban facilities focused on tourism creating new centralities by their own. This changes provoques a constant reduction on the local population, where the original city center is no longer inhabited because the high prices of the properties in that area. The study wants to point the effects of mass tourism in this historic city from the architectonic and urbanistic perspective. The city of Venice The city of Venice is located in northeast Italy in the shallow of the Venetian Lagoon, it lies over 118 islands separated by channels which are linked by 400 bridges1. The city can only be traveled by foot or boat, making a unique case in modern cities where cars and its roads are key elements in a city configuration. The Historic Center of Venice is declared UNESCO World Heritage Site with many buildings with high historical value, which makes it an attractive destination for tourists all around the world to visit the city. The Historic Center of Venice forms part of the municipality of Venice that includes the other islands of the Venetian Lagoon such as Lido, Murano, Burano and Torcello for example, and the mainland cities of Mestre, Marguera and Favaro2, up to 1950’s, the Historic Center of Venice was 1 The surface of Venice according the Commune di Venezia is 797.96 ha 2 The municipality of Venice was established in 1923, before that Mestre, Favaro, Burano, Murano, Pellestrina, Chirignago and Zelarino were independent municipalities the main urban center of the municipality, but this has changed and nowadays Mestre is the real center of the municipality. The Historical Center of Venice due to its geographical condition is vulnerable to flooding, each year in autumn and spring the high tide known in Venice as “acqua alta” appears causing some years damage to the buildings and provoking the evacuation of the population of certain areas in the city. 1966 was the year when the high tide (1.96m) reached its peak causing a damage on approximately 75% of the houses and shops. History The origins of the city of Venice can be traced to 452 AC when the inhabitants of the inland roman city of Altinum escaped from the hun invasion and decided to establish a settlement in the islands of the Venice Lagoon. In the early stages the city was under Byzantine domain, leaving a strong influence in the later architecture. The city became the capital of the Republic of Venice (697 AC- 1797 AC), by the late middle ages and the renaissance the city was one of the maritime powers in the Mediterranean and an economic center, as a matter of fact by the 14th century the city was considered as one of the first financial centers in Europe. The city suffered a slow period of decadence as consequence of the dominance of the east Mediterranean by the Ottoman Empire blocking the commercial routes that one day made Venice one of the greatest powers in Europe. The end of the republic of Venice came in the year of 1797 AC, when the troops of Napoleon took the city making the last Dogo resign. In the second half of the 19th century the city began to grow with the arrival of the train connecting the city with the mainland (1846 AC) transforming the city into and industrial center. Until the first half of the 20th century the city remained as an industrial center, in the following years the city lost influence and importance in favor of the mainland cities of Mestre and Marguera in the mainland. The Venetian architecture The city of Venice was builded mostly over alluvial mud, in order to support the all the churches and Venetian palaces, the inhabitants of Venice developed a system of timber piles driven into mud that with the pass of the time harden to form a strong foundation and support the Venetian buildings mostly builded of bricks and stone3. The most characteristic architectonic style in the historic center of Venice is the Venetian Gothic a variant of the Italian gothic with influence of the Byzantine and Arab architecture, as consequence of the intense trade with the eastern world. The most important exponent of this style is the Doge’s Palace with the characteristic ogee arches and the particular rose windows that are very present in the other Venetian palaces, despite the numerous fires and remodelation the Ducal Palace preserve the same exterior style as 1340 AD, other important exponents of this style are Ca’ d’Oro (1432 AD) and Ca’ Foscari (1453 AD), this two palaces have their facades facing the Grand Canal. 3 John Roloff, Venice Substructure Complex (Venice: Emily Harvey Foundation, 2016), https://www.johnroloff.com/Roloff_VSC2.pdf (Consulted 10-06-2020) Figure 1: Facade of the Ducal Palace Font: Armando Cepeda Guedea (2018) In the Renaissance was also a time of flourishing of the architecture with important buildings as the Procuratie (1640 AD) designed by Scamozi, in the High Renaissance the head architect of Venice was Andrea Palladio who published The Four Books of Architecture (1570 AD) , which is treatise on architecture that served as a guide of the principles of architecture, that nowadays is still present in the architecture faculties around the world. Figure 2: The Procuratie Font: Armando Cepeda Guedea (2018) The Italian economic miracle in Venice. The early 1950’s During the World War II, Venice received an important flow of migrants seeking for refuge because the city was free of bombardments due to an agreement between the Germans and Allies, causing a change in the natural demographics of the city. After the war Venice continued to receive migrants mainly form the countryside seeking for jobs opportunities4, until 1951 the population in the Historic Center of Venice was growing, thereafter the population of Venice has only decreased. Figure 3: View form the Grand Channel in 1950 Font: Archivio Fotografico Giacomelli - Comune di Venezia (1950) By the beginnings of the 1950’s the city had an important industrial activity but with clear signs of decline and even disappearance. In 1951 three big factories were still operating in Venice, the Navy arsenal factory was employing nearly 3,000 civil employees, the Molino Stucky with 500 workers by the time. Also, the Italian Navy Command of the Adriatic was still in Venice, 4 In the 1950’s decade the Italian economic miracle happened, marking a shift in the economics of the country, from a mainly agricultural economic by the baggings of the decade, to a mainly industrial economic by the beginnings of the 1960’s. Cohen, Jon, and Giovanni Federico. “An Economic Miracle? Italy in the Golden Age, 1945–1960.” Chapter. In The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1820–1960, 87–106. New Studies in Economic and Social History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 generating jobs and a constant source of population, and the Cotonificio, a fabric factory employing around 600 workers. In 1952 for the first time the flow of goods in the port of Venice (5,091,814 tons) was superior than 1939 (4,599,176) before the war, this increase can be understood due the increasing demand of petroleum, because the commercial flow in 1952 (1,421,841) was still below the times before war (2,220,818) in 19395. Venice by the beginnings of the 1950’s decade regains its place as a cultural center, with the return of the important cultural events as the Venice Biennale and the Venice Film Festival in Lido at full capacity, increasing the touristic activity in the city. In the 1950’s the tourism was not yet massified but the signs of the future touristification were begging to appear, for example in 1950 for the first time the non-Italian tourists (278,875) surpassed the local ones (226,180)6. It can be considered that the 1950’s was the decade were the touristification process of the historical center of Venice began.

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