Page 52 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

50  INTRODUCING VENICE AND THE VENE T O

Glorious Decadence

No longer a major power, 18th-century Venice
became a byword for decadence, as aristocratic
Venetians frittered away their inherited wealth in
lavish parties and gambling. All this crumbled in
1797, when the city was besieged by Napoleon, who
demanded the abdication of the doge. Napoleon
granted the city to his opponents, the Austrians, The State-Run Casino
whose often authoritarian rule drove many The notorious Ridotto, open to
people of the Veneto to join the vanguard of anyone wearing a mask, closed in
the revolutionary Risorgimento. This movement, 1774, as many Venetians had
bankrupted themselves.
led in Venice by Daniele Manin, was dedicated
to creating a free and united Italy, a Gambling fever so gripped
dream not fully realized until 1870, the city that gaming tables
four years after Venice was freed were set up between the
from Austrian rule. columns in the Piazza.

Caffè Pedrocchi
Several intellectuals who had
used this lavishly decorated café
(see p182) in Padua as their base
were executed for leading a revolt
against Austrian rule in 1831.

Imperial Ritual
Canaletto’s St Mark’s Basin
on Ascension Day (c.1733)
captures the empty
splendour of Venice on the
The Horses of St Mark
Among the art treasures eve of her demise. The doge’s
looted by Napoleon gold and scarlet barge has
were the Four Horses of St been launched for the
Mark, symbols of Venetian annual ceremony of Venice’s
liberty. The horses were Marriage to the Sea.
returned in 1815.

1720 Caffè Florian 1755 Casanova 1789 The Dolomites
opens in Venice 1752 Completion of sea imprisoned in named after Déodat de
(p250) walls protecting the Doge’s Palace Dolomieu (1750–1801)
lagoon entrances
1725 Casanova 1775 Caffè Quadri (p250)
born in Venice opens in Venice Déodat de Dolomieu
1720 1770
1790 Venetian opera house, La Fenice, opens
1757 Canova, Neo-
Classical sculptor, 1797 Napoleon invades the Veneto; Doge Lodovico
born in Venice Manin abdicates; Venetian Republic ends
1798 Napoleon grants Venice and its territories to his
Café Florian Austrian allies in return for Lombardy

050-051_EW_Venice.indd 50 8/18/17 11:05 AM