Post date: Oct 13, 2015 5:59:24 PM
One of the last few things that I looked into the week was the history of boats in Venice. I was expecting there to be a lot more information out there than there was, but quite honestly there haven't been too many changes throughout the years. The original design of the gondola was highly ornamental and were fashioned with fanciful ironwork with a broad stern. This helped the gondolier improve their positioning and steering throughout the canals. By the 1600s there were an estimated 10,000 gondolas being rowed throughout the city. In 1768, a naval artist made an architectural drawing that proved today’s gondolas are almost exactly the same as they were in the 1800s, except for the symmetry. At the end of the 1800s, steam-powered boats were starting to rise within Venice, as well as the asymmetry of the gondola design. At this point in time, even though the design of the gondola had been perfected, their use declined because of the superiority of new boat designs. In the 1960s, motorized boats began being used with the increase in tourism and the gondola declined. In Venice today, the main boat type is the motorized boat which is used for the transport of people and goods; however, the gondola is still used, primarily for tourists sightseeing.
-Jacqueline