Venice, built on a submerged forest

Venice: A City Floating on a Submerged Forest

Since 421 AD, Venice has stood on millions of tree trunks stuck into the clay bottom of the lagoon. Not steel or concrete, but mostly alder, with a few oaks, support the entire city.

In the salt water, these wooden pillars have petrified over time, becoming as hard as stone.

St. Mark's Campanile alone stands on 100,000 piles, while the majestic Basilica della Salute required over a million trunks. The ancient builders beat these trees into the seabed, creating a veritable submerged forest.

This unique structure extends up to three meters deep, with piles spaced just half a meter apart. At 1.6 meters below the waterline, this extraordinary feat of medieval engineering continues, after 1,500 years, to support one of the most fascinating cities in the world. &

Sources: University of Florida Architectural Studies, Historical and Archaeological Documents.