Venice in colour [antikvár]

I ^ Venice, the International City Venice a town rising from ttie sea, reminding us of ttie birtin of Venus. Venice a town founded on love of freedom, growing gradually in tiie silence of her lagoon, thanks to the determination and wisdom of its citizens. Venice most famous of cities, celebrated for her wisdom and justice, later declining in the vicissitudes of all human destiny. Venice a unique city, in which the works of tiie greatest artists decorate the churches, guilds, and palaces, forming a wonderful treasury of art. Finally, Venice a city whose survival Is watched anxiously by the whole world, and which can rightly be called an international city. 1. ST. MARK'S SQUARE AND THE PIAZZETTA (AERIAL VIEW). 2. THE GRAND CANAL (AERIAL VIEW). Right at the dawn of her glorious history, in the fifth century, Venice was the place where a few fishermen had settled in clusters of pile dwelling on the islands of the lagoon. Only a few centuries later, a rich powerful town was developing; her ships began to sail down the Adriatic sea, and thence to the eastern Mediterranean to set up flourishing trading ports. The theft of the remains of St. Mark the Evangelist In 828 from Alexandria in Egypt, is an indication of the kind of ambition of the Serenissima Republic. St. Mark is the prime glory of Venice, and was adopted as her symbol on all flags, public buildings and coins. But above all else, St. Mark to Venetians means the Basilica, that noble building founded about the year 1000 A.D. which became the town's spiritual centre, the church of the Republic where important public events were hallowed in the name of the revered Patron Saint. Venetian art was originally inspired by the oriental forms of Byzantium; when the mosaic artists, working In the tradition of Ravenna, began to decorate St. Mark's, they used the church of the Twelve Apostles at Costantinople as a model. Later, the fourteenth century was characterised by a splendid interpretation of the flowering Gothic style, giving rise to wonderful works of art such as the Doge's Palace, with its superb Porta della Carta (Gateway leading to the State Archives), Ca d'Oro, Ca Foscari, Ca Giustinian, Ca Loredan etc. The most beauti-