Venice: A City Built on an Underwater Forest

Did you know Venice was built on a lagoon—right on top of thousands of oak and fir logs? This unique engineering method has kept the city standing for centuries!

Since 421 AD, the city of Venice has stood on a foundation of millions of wooden tree trunks driven deep into the clay bed of its lagoon. Rather than using steel or concrete, the city was built primarily on alder wood, with some oak piles for extra support.

Over time, these wooden pillars, submerged in saltwater, have petrified, hardening to a stone-like consistency. This ancient engineering marvel has supported Venice for 1,500 years.

• St. Mark’s Campanile alone rests on 100,000 wooden piles.

• The grand Basilica della Salute required over one million tree trunks.

• The piles, spaced just half a meter apart, extend three meters into the seabed.

Why Was Venice Built on Water?

In the 5th century, people fled their mainland homes to escape barbarian invasions. The marshy Venetian Lagoon provided a natural refuge—difficult for invaders to cross. Over time, as more refugees arrived, they began constructing a new city on the water, leading to the Venice we know today.

So, Where Did All of This Wood Come From?

The Cansiglio forest was always part of the Repubblica Serenissima (Most Serene Republic of Venice), which needed to preserve productive and efficient forests in order to supply timber to the Venetian Arsenal for the construction of oars for Venice’s famed galleys.

As is mentioned in the Atlante storico della Serenissima, the oak came from the areas around Treviso, Friuli and later also from Istria, while mountain fir and larch came from Valsugana, Bassano and Cadore. The wood was transported via the rivers: the Adige, the Brenta, and the Piave.

The logs were tied together into rafts (zattere) and carried down river to Venice by the current. Here they reached the Fondamenta delle Zattere, where they were then sorted. Some of the logs were taken to Venice’s Arsenal, others to San Biagio and Giudecca, where firewood was stored. Other logs also moved along the shoreline and were carried to where they were needed for construction: “They are mainly used to shore up the land, as for example was done for the bell tower of Saint Mark’s, larch for the big rafts that serve as a foundation: arranging the planks like flooring on the tops of the piers, which are all cut to the same height. Boats require more valuable wood: oak for the woodwork and the edging, larch for the interiors, and fir for the ship’s masts.”

Venice’s ‘bricole’ are also tree trunks that have been in the lagoon for centuries and contribute to the city’s unique and fascinating identity. Once this wood has aged and eroded, it is replaced and the bricole that have reached the end of their lifecycle are salvaged and reused to create the objects designed by Pieces of Venice. Each one of these objects preserves a ‘piece of Venice’ and travels the world to tell the age-old story of this city, a rich repository of art and culture.