An old stone well is carved with an urn on Torcello island, Venice Lagoon, Italy, Europe

An old stone well is carved with an urn on Torcello island, in the Venice Lagoon, Italy, Europe. Because Venice was cut off from reliable sources of fresh water, Venetians built underground clay-lined cisterns to collect and filter rainwater. Many wellheads were decorated with carvings of saints, family crests, inscriptions in Carolingian, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque era styles. An aqueduct from the mainland completed in the late 1800s made wells obsolete. The Church of Santa Fosca dates from the 1000s AD (as does the adjacent Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta) on Torcello island. Italy’s Veneto region is named for the ancient Veneti people from the 900s BC. More than 100 small islands spread across the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy, between the mouths of the Po and Piave Rivers. Barbarian invasions, such as Huns in 452 AD, drove mainland Veniti people to settle the islands. The population of Torcello peaked in the 900s AD with more people than the city of Venice. The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a staging area for the Crusades, and a major center of art and commerce (silk, grain and spice trade) from the 1200s to 1600s. The wealthy legacy of Venice stands today in a rich architecture combining Gothic, Byzantine, and Arab styles.

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Filename: 13ITA-10186_Venice-Italy.jpg
Copyright: © Tom Dempsey / PhotoSeek.com
Image Size: 8000x5333 / 9.5MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; art art work history past
Contained in galleries: ITALY: Venice: Murano, Burano, Torcello islands

An old stone well is carved with an urn on Torcello island, in the Venice Lagoon, Italy, Europe. Because Venice was cut off from reliable sources of fresh water, Venetians built underground clay-lined cisterns to collect and filter rainwater. Many wellheads were decorated with carvings of saints, family crests, inscriptions in Carolingian, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque era styles. An aqueduct from the mainland completed in the late 1800s made wells obsolete. The Church of Santa Fosca dates from the 1000s AD (as does the adjacent Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta) on Torcello island. Italy’s Veneto region is named for the ancient Veneti people from the 900s BC. More than 100 small islands spread across the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy, between the mouths of the Po and Piave Rivers. Barbarian invasions, such as Huns in 452 AD, drove mainland Veniti people to settle the islands. The population of Torcello peaked in the 900s AD with more people than the city of Venice. The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a staging area for the Crusades, and a major center of art and commerce (silk, grain and spice trade) from the 1200s to 1600s. The wealthy legacy of Venice stands today in a rich architecture combining Gothic, Byzantine, and Arab styles.