Aerial view of the Venetian Lagoon, showing many of the islands including Venice itself, center rear, with the bridge to the mainland.

The Venetian Lagoon

The Venetian Lagoon is the enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Venetian language, Laguna Veneta— cognate of Latin lacus, "lake"— has provided the international name for an enclosed, shallow embayment of saltwater, a lagoon.

The Venetian Lagoon stretches from the River Sile in the north to the Brenta in the south, with a surface area of around 550 square kilometres (210 sq mi). It is around 8% land, including Venice itself and many smaller islands. About 11% is permanently covered by open water, or canal, as the network of dredged channels are called, while around 80% consists of mud flats, tidal shallows and salt marshes. The lagoon is the largest wetland in the Mediterranean Basin.^[1]

It is connected to the Adriatic Sea by three inlets: the Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia inlets. Sited at the end of a largely enclosed sea, the lagoon is subject to high variations in water level, the most extreme being the spring tides known as the acqua alta (Italian for "high waters"), which regularly flood much of Venice.

The nearby Grado-Marano lagoon, with a surface area of around 160 square kilometres (62 sq mi), is the northernmost lagoon in the Adriatic Sea and is called sometimes the "twin sister of the Venice lagoon".

The Lagoon of Venice is the most important survivor of a system of estuarine lagoons that in Roman times extended from Ravenna north to Trieste. In the sixth century, the Lagoon gave security to Romanised people fleeing invaders (mostly the Huns). Later, it provided naturally protected conditions for the growth of the Venetian Republic and its maritime empire. It still provides a base for a seaport, the Venetian Arsenal, and for fishing, as well as a limited amount of hunting and the newer industry of fish farming.

The island of Torcello seen from the Lagoon

The Lagoon was formed about six to seven thousand years ago, when the marine transgression following the Ice Age flooded the upper Adriatic coastal plain.^[2] Deposition of river sediments compensated for the sinking coastal plain, and coastwise drift from the mouth of the Po tended to close tidal inlets with sand bars.

The present aspect of the Lagoon is due to human intervention. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Venetian hydraulic projects to prevent the lagoon from turning into a marsh reversed the natural evolution of the Lagoon. Pumping of aquifers since the nineteenth century has increased subsidence. Originally many of the Lagoon’s islands were marshy, but a gradual programme of drainage rendered them habitable. Many of the smaller islands are entirely artificial, while some areas around the seaport of the Mestre are also reclaimed islands. The remaining islands are essentially dunes, including those of the coastal strip (Lido, Pellestrina and Treporti).

The Venetian Lagoon Islands

The largest islands or archipelagos by area, excluding coastal reclaimed land and the coastal barrier beaches:

• Venice 5.17 km²
• Sant'Erasmo 3.26 km²
• Murano 1.17 km²
• Chioggia 0.67 km²
• Giudecca 0.59 km²
• Mazzorbo 0.52 km²
• Torcello 0.44 km²
• Sant'Elena 0.34 km²
• La Certosa 0.24 km²
• Burano 0.21 km²
• Tronchetto 0.18 km²
• Sacca Fisola 0.18 km²
• San Michele 0.16 km²
• Sacca Sessola 0.16 km²
• Santa Cristina 0.13 km²

Other inhabited islands include:

• Cavallino
• Lazzaretto Nuovo
• Lazzaretto Vecchio
• Lido
• Pellestrina
• Poveglia
• San Clemente
• San Francesco del Deserto
• San Giorgio in Alga
• San Giorgio Maggiore
• San Lazzaro degli Armeni
• Santa Maria della Grazia
• San Pietro di Castello
• San Servolo
• Santo Spirito
• Sottomarina
• Vignole

See also[link]

• MOSE Project

Further reading[link]

• Horatio Brown, Life on the Lagoons (1884, 1900, 1904, & 1909; paperback, 2008)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Venetian Lagoon

• Atlas of the Lagoon - 103 thematic maps and associated explanations grouped in five sections: Geosphere, Biosphere, Anthroposphere, Protected Environments and Integrated Analysis
• SIL - Sistema Informativo della Laguna di Venezia
• Lagoon of Venice information
• Satellite image from Google Maps
• MILVa - Interactive Map of Venice Lagoon
• Comune di Venezia, Servizio Mobilità Acquea, Thematic cartography of Venice Lagoon
• Brambati, Antonio, Laura Carbognin, Tullio Quaia, Pietro Teatini and Pietro Tosi, "The Lagoon of Venice: geological setting, evolution and land subsidence" September 2003 (pdf file)
• Photo gallery by Enrico Martino about Venice's lagoon small islands, night life

Coordinates: 45°24′47″N 12°17′50″E / 45.41306°N 12.29722°E / 45.41306; 12.29722