VENICE, a celebrated city of north. eastern Italy, capital of the above prove ince and of the former Venetian repub lic; near the N. extremity of the Adriatic, 70 miles W. of Trieste. The city is built entirely on piles driven into about 117 small islands situated in the shallow waters of the Bay of Venice, and known as the lagoons, a kind of lake shut out from the deeper water of the Adriatic Sea, by a ridge or long but interrupted belt of sand and earth called the Litto rale, which extends about 2 miles from the shore, shutting in all the islands and lagoons from the Adriatic Sea. A modern viaduct, supported on 222 arches, part of the Verona and Venice railway, has lately united the continent with the Littorale or protecting beach of the city. The 117 islands on which the city is built are separated from each other by narrow channels, which serve the purpose of thoroughfares, being con stantly traversed by gondolas, a light river boat, answering the purpose of cabs and omnibuses, and depositing passengers at any house or building at which they may desire to alight. The whole series of islands are connected with each other by some 450 bridges. Some of the islands are large enough to have what may be regarded as two or three short streets with intersecting lanes or alleys, but in general they only present blocks of buildings, having river fronts, according to the direction of the canal, or the water frontage of the isle. The longest and most important street in Venice, the Merceria, is only 15 feet wide; carriages and horses are unknown in Venice, the gondola being the univer sal means of transit to those going from shop to shop or house to hour.).
Venice is nearly 8 miles in circum ference, contains about 28,000 houses, and is divided into two parts by the Grand Canal, or Canal Grande. Over this canal there are three bridges, that of the Rialto, the most magnificent bridge in Venice, consisting of a single arch 90 feet in span and 24 feet in height, built of marble in 1590. Two ranges of shops divide its upper sur face into three narrow parallel streets. Venice is regarded as one of the finest cities in Europe, and was for many cen turies the capital of the first maritime and commercial state in the world. It
consequently contains proportionally a larger number of public buildings and palatial residences than any other city in Europe; among the most celebrated of its national edifices, first mention must be given to that stupendous build ing, the pride and glory of Venice, the ducal palace of St. Nark, with the cathe dral of St. Marco, forming three sides of a square, the grandest and most im posing quarter of all the city. The square of St. Mark—with its arcades, its fine and elegant shops and cafds, the vast grandeur of its ducal residence con taining all the chambers of state, audi ence, and judicature, and its magnifi cent cathedral—presents a picture of grandeur and beauty unequaled by any capital in Europe. The Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) stretches across the canal called the Rio Palazzo, and com municates between prisons on the E., and the Doge's palace on the W. bank of the canal. It is a covered gallery; and prisoners, when led to execution, passed from their cells across this gal lery to the palace, to hear sentence of death passed upon them, and then were conducted to the scene of death between the red columns.
Few cities in Italy are richer in works of pictorial art than Venice; some of the masterpieces of Titian, Tintoretto, Paul Veronese, and the other great chiefs of the Venetian school, are to be found in all the churches of this extraor dinary city. The library (a fine mar ble structure, containing 120,000 vol umes and 10,000 MSS.), the museum, and cabinet of curiosities of St. Mark's are regarded as the finest in Europe. The arsenal and dockyard are esteemed as worthy objects of attraction; the latter, in the palmy days of Venice, con tained 40 line-of-battle ships, 12 of them three-deckers, with arms for 150, 000 men, 4,000 pieces of ordnance, and an immense amount of naval and mili tary store, with provision and every requisite to maintain its reputation as one of the first commercial and mari time states in the world. For many centuries, in the Middle Ages, Venice had the monopoly of all the glass sold to Europe; but this has long since passed away, and its chief trade is now confined to the manufacture of mirrors, je-.velry, artificial pearls, silks, velvets, and porcelain.