Venice

0:28So good, so good, so good. It's 828 AD. Inside the church of St. Mark in Alexandria, the great port city in Egypt, the air is heavy with incense. Flickering candles throw shadows across carved pillars and faded mosaics, where saints gaze down from the walls. But despite the pious solemnity, right now a daring heist is underway.

1:01At the altar, two broad-shouldered sailors from Venice stand with a pair of Coptic priests. At their feet is a long, cloth-wrapped reliquary, almost the length of a man. This fragile bundle is ancient and worn, but immeasurably holy. It contains the mortal remains of St. Mark the Evangelist, companion, interpreter, and scribe of St. Peter himself.

1:34The Venetians are here to smuggle him to their lagoon city, far across the Mediterranean, and they are doing it with the full complicity of the custodians of this church. These priests know what's at stake. With Alexandria now under Muslim rule, relics are are being scattered and churches destroyed. Today, they're all trying to ensure this relic will not be desecrated in the same way. But first, they must get it out of the city undetected.

2:09With the sacred bundle secured between them, the Venetians move towards the huge church doors. As they creak open, the roar of the city floods in. Outside, in the shimmering heat, traders barter, sailors call across the harbour, camels grunt under loads of spice and grain. The Venetians keep their eyes low and their pace steady, heading towards a nearby handcart. There, an accomplice waits with a cover of salted pork. Carefully, the relic is secreted at the bottom of the pile and quickly covered with slabs of greasy meat. To the devout, it is a scandalous disguise. But to the smugglers, it is perfect.

2:57The Muslim officials, checking every cargo, will never touch pork. The Venetians wheel the cart cautiously through the market, with every jolt threatening to expose the secret within. The smell of the meat wafts up, thick and cloying in the sun. Up ahead, two customs officers stride across the cobbles, demanding to inspect their lot. One of the Venetians steps forward, lifting the uppermost cuts of meat with deliberate slowness. The guards quickly recoil, muttering in disgust but waving them on. They press through the crowd as quickly as they can, with each turn of the wheels bringing them closer to escape.

3:41Reaching the harbor, the Venetians hurry to the water's edge, where their own galley waits, crew ready to help load the cart along with its hidden treasure on board. Once on deck, the relic, still swaddled in pork, is secured in the hold, ready for the journey home. Wasting no time, the crew settle at their posts. Oars dip in unison. The sails unfurl, canvas cracking in the wind, and the galley pulls free, leaving Alexandria behind.

4:18The Venetian smugglers allow themselves a small, congratulatory smile as they speed across the glittering sea. They have done the unthinkable. The relic of Saint Mark, who brought Christianity to Alexandria, is bound for a new home. And his arrival in Venice will not just sanctify the city, but will also come to define it for centuries to come.

4:52Rising from the waters of a shallow, marshy lagoon, and built on wooden piles driven into the shifting mud, It's arguable that Venice should never even have existed. One of the most improbable cities in the world, it began as a place of refuge that grew into a magnificent, powerful republic, commanding trade routes, shaping empires, and dazzling visitors with its wealth and beauty. Over the course of a thousand years, its ships carried spices and silk, its artists reshaped European culture, and its masked revelers embodied libertine decadence.

5:33But what difference did a daring relic heist from Alexandria make to Venice's identity? How did this small republic of merchants bend crusaders, emperors, and popes to its will? And how will this place, sometimes known as the floating city, manage the threats it faces from mass tourism and rising waters? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is a short history of Venice.

6:12Venice's story begins with an act of desperation. When barbarian, goth, and hun invasions sweep across the Roman Empire in the 5th century, frightened communities of Italy's northeastern Veneto region gather what they can and flee into an inhospitable landscape of marsh, mudflats, and small islands known as the Venetian Lagoon. And though it's hardly an ideal refuge, their knowledge of its narrow, shallow waterways offers some sanctuary. Thomas Madden is professor of history at St. Louis University and author of Venice a new history. No one with a choice would choose to found a city in the middle of a brackish lagoon that has nothing but water that you can't drink and mud and sand.

7:06It's done because there isn't a choice. Yet here, amid the reeds and salt water, they find safety from invaders who have no idea how to navigate the maze of channels between the islands.

7:21But life in the lagoon is hostile, and as soon as the danger passes, the refugees scatter back to their ruined towns to try and rebuild. And yet, each time new raiders descend to plunder their wealth, the townspeople are forced to flee to the safety of the water again. There they establish rough shacks built on wooden piles driven deep into the mud, ready as a bolt hole in times of crisis. Slowly, the refugees adapt to the harsh conditions, surviving in the isolated lagoon for longer periods by harvesting its scant resources and trading with one another for whatever else they need.

8:05For generations, this rhythm continues. The refuge becomes more defined, though still still too dispersed to be a true community. But religion binds the islanders in shared ritual, belief, and importantly, helps to establish a collective history.

8:28According to legend, the beginnings of Venezia, or Venice, date back to 421 AD, when a small church was consecrated at Rialto, the cluster of islets that will eventually become the city's heart. Yet, for now, most still return to their ruined towns whenever danger passes, clinging to the hope of rebuilding their lives. That cycle ends in 568 AD, when the Lombards arrive. These Germanic tribes, seeking land to conquer and settle, sweep down into northern Italy. And this time, the invaders are here to stay. So once the Lombards are there, the refugees realize that this is the end. They're never going home again.

9:16And so they have to make this their new home. And so they settle in all these different islands all throughout the lagoon. The lagoon that we see today, the Venetian Lagoon, used to be much larger. Much of it has silted up over the centuries. It used to stretch all along the northern portion of the Adriatic. And there were lots of island towns that developed throughout those centuries.

9:45Though separate at first, these habitats slowly coalesce to form a new settlement that prizes independence and resilience, cooperation and ingenuity. Initially constructed from timber and reeds, the architecture becomes sturdier over time, with walls solidified with wattle and daub. Goods are ferried in by boats and with no roads, the waterways act as streets between clusters of stilted houses lifted above the tide. Their precarious existence, along with their almost unique freedom from invasion, informs the Venetians' sense of identity. The Venetians always saw themselves because they lived in this lagoon.

10:29They were part of Europe, but they were also stood aloof. from Europe. They were the only place in Western Europe that had not been conquered by the barbarian invasions which destroyed the rest of the Roman Empire. And they viewed themselves very much as a kind of a Rome unfallen.

10:52Over the next centuries, the settlements knit together into a more cohesive community. But now they need rules, leaders, and direction. Nominally, they remain under the shadow of Byzantium, the eastern half of the old Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople. But this offers both protection and problems. There was a kind of a dual allegiance for them. On the one hand, they were loyal to the emperors in Constantinople. On the other hand, they weren't really in the empire anymore. They were on the frontier of the frontier. So there were lots of conflicting kinds of allegiances, but it did mean that they definitely stood apart.

11:36It's out of this duality that Venice's unique political system emerges.

11:45Fourth of July savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at$398. Plus, get free delivery on appliance purchases of$398 or more, no membership required. Upgrade your kitchen with a modern and sleek GE profile refrigerator featuring hands-free autofill for the perfect pour every time. And make laundry day easier with two-in-one washer-dryer combo innovation that completes laundry in about 90 minutes. Shop top brand appliances now at The Home Depot. Offer valid June 17th to July at the U.S. only C-Store Online for details. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC.

12:20And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC. In the 8th century, the Venetians decide to elect a doge, or a duke, to act as head of state and govern their affairs. The office of doge is both symbolic and practical. Representing all of the various island enclaves, he projects unity across the lagoon while keeping order.

13:09At this stage there is still no city, just a cluster of villages strung across mudflats and channels, with the capital shifting to wherever each successive doge is from. The production of food and goods in this strange landscape also affects the kind of republic Venice will become. Venice doesn't have fields. They grow very little. They grow a few grapes here and there, they might have some places for a few animals, but it's mostly just for local consumption. But they can't produce food. They have to buy it. The only thing that they do produce there locally is fish, but it's not very good. The main product they produced in those early years is salt.

13:54They have salt works in which they can evaporate seawater, and then they can roll the salt and sell that. So they become businessmen right from the beginning because their life depends on it. That dependence shapes everything. Where other parts of medieval Europe develop feudalism, rooted in land ownership and military aristocracy, power in Venice lies with the ship owners and merchants, whose survival depends on the lagoon and the sea beyond. With a doge chosen primarily for his commercial skill, the city learns to constantly find balance between larger powers. Though officially governed by Constantinople, the empire is stretched thin.

14:41and distracted by crises closer to home. That leaves Venice to act independently when it suits, with the doge extracting privileges from Byzantine emperors, bargaining with popes in Rome, and charting his own course between the two.

14:59By the beginning of the 9th century, Venice is acting as a republic in all but name, with its strength firmly rooted in the sea and the trade on offer. But for all their autonomy, the Venetians are not beyond danger. On the mainland, the Franks are rising, a powerful dynasty of Germanic origin that now dominates much of Western and Central Europe. Their greatest ruler, Charlemagne, has formed the Carolingian Empire and been crowned emperor in Rome, reviving the idea of a Western Empire. and in 810 Charlemagne's son Pepin king of Italy turns his eye on the lagoon. Charlemagne conquered most of central Europe and was extremely successful but here's this little lagoon that he doesn't have control over and so Pepin invades as he goes right along the Lido and conquers Malamoco and it looks like this is the end of Venice but the Venetians end up fleeing over the center of the lagoon, the hardest place to get to, Rivo Alto, high banks, what we today call Rialto.

16:08And once they defeat Pepin, that becomes the new capital. So what we think of as Venice is a result of that. But even with the takeover avoided, independence for the Venetians is never only about politics. It is also about faith. At this stage, the church in Venice is being led from the Patriarchate of Grado, a small island just outside the lagoon. But its authority is continually contested by the older and more powerful Patriarchate of Aquileia on the mainland. But the problem is the Patriarch of Aquileia is Frankish. And the Venetians see this as essentially the Franks getting control of their church.

16:54In other words, getting what they couldn't get by warfare. And they are strongly opposed to this. To make matters worse, Aquileia claims religious superiority, because their first bishop was a disciple of St. Mark himself. And then, in 827, the Pope ruled against the Venetians and said, no more patriarch of Grotto, you're under Aquileia. And so that meant that this was a crisis. us. The crisis gives new urgency to Venice's quest for independence, and that requires a dramatic piece of one-upmanship. If Aquileia can boast a disciple of St. Mark, Venice will have to go one better. They will have to get St.

17:40Mark himself. Which is why a small group of merchants head off to Alexandria to secure his vestigial remains and smuggle them back to Venice under a blanket of pork. And once the relic is safely in Venice, they conveniently recall a prophecy that ties St. Mark to them for good. They told the story that St. Mark, during his life, was on his way to Aquileia. Now, there was no Venice back then, it was the first century, But he sailed through the lagoon, and he spent the night at Rialto, right there. And while he was sleeping, an angel came down and said, Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist. Your body will rest here.

18:29So it was prophesied that he would come back. The prophecy allows the Venetians to finally unite the disparate islands of the lagoon, each one with its own church and its own saint under one gloriously divine protector. If you walk around Venice today, you'll walk by church after church after church because those used to all be islands. But now, after bringing the body of St. Mark, Venice became one urban center. And the patron saint of that center, ultimately their whole republic, was St. Mark. With their patron saint enthroned and their independence more secure, the Venetians can now assemble their lagoon into the shape of a city.

19:14But how do you build a city on water? The solution is both simple and ingenious. Taking inspiration from their predecessors, builders now drive thousands of tightly packed wooden piles hewn from the alpine forests deep into the mud, creating solid platforms on which to raise better homes and churches. Submerged in the dense mud without air, the wood will harden rather than rot, fossilizing over time to form the invisible stone support network that still underpins Venice today. Rialto, that safer, higher ground, now becomes the permanent seat of power and the beating heart of the emerging city.

20:03The wooden Rialto bridge that spans the Grand Canal binds the islands together, and the waterway itself becomes a lifeline. Markets flourish along its banks, while goods stream in from the Adriatic, carried on proud Venetian galleys. Now they have very close connections with Constantinople and with the Byzantine Empire because they're still part of it during the early centuries. And so they can sail to Constantinople, which is a massive city. So there's an enormous amount of trade that goes on there. They can buy low and come back and sell high. And so these merchant runs become crucial to them.

20:47Ties with Constantinople give the Venetian merchants access to routes and privileges that those from other cities can only dream of, and the profits from this commerce are ploughed right back into developing the city. More bridges are built to link the islands. Modest wooden homes give way to sturdier brick palaces along the canals, each one a declaration of the ambition and wealth of Venice's merchant elites. There are workshops too, most famously on the island of Murano, where Venetian craftsmen turn glass into both an art form and a prized export. And at the heart of all this development is the Church of San Marco, one of Venice's first great stone buildings, constructed beside the Doge's Palace to house the relics of Saint Mark.

21:38Though humble by later standards, it's already a strong symbol that this proto-republic now sees itself as permanent, powerful, and divinely favored. Stone by stone, Venice secures its foundations. But its future lies with the sea, where its merchants are known for their shrewdness and success. The stage is set for expansion.

22:08In the 11th century, Italy is still centuries away from unification. The peninsula is divided into rival city-states like Genoa and Pisa, and powerful regional players like the Norman kingdom of Sicily in the south and the Lombards further north, all of whom are competing for wealth and influence. By now, Venice has developed from a wealthy merchant city into a maritime powerhouse. Its fleets crisscross the Adriatic and the wider Mediterranean, carrying salt, glassware, and fine textiles, while importing spices, silks, and precious goods from the east. But transporting such valuable cargo over water is not without its risks.

22:54For centuries, Venice has relied on the Byzantine Empire for some measure of protection, especially at sea. But as the old powers now fade, Venice must step in. The Byzantine Empire becomes much smaller and doesn't have the ability any longer to police the Adriatic. And the Venetians, who are now utterly reliant on trade, very reluctantly come to the conclusion that they're going to have to take over some of that operation of at least keeping the Adriatic safe. And so they need to start producing war galleys to patrol the Adriatic. To protect its wealth, Venice builds and maintains a formidable navy.

23:43Merchant convoys sail under armed escort to fend off pirates, defend their routes against rival city-states, and avert threats from those bigger regional powers. Venice is soon strong enough to take almost sole responsibility for keeping the seas around them safe. And once they start doing that, really the Adriatic is theirs. In fact, they start referring to the Adriatic as the Sea of Venice. And that means that if you're doing business somewhere, if you're a merchant and you pick up something in Alexandria and then you come into the Adriatic planning to stop at another Italian port, once Venice has firm control over the Adriatic, they require you to unload in Venice.

24:31So you don't get a choice as to where you're going anymore. You're told by the authorities that if you enter RC, you're going to Venice. Either that or pay the taxes, pay a Venetian tax on the goods that you have, then you can go wherever you want. Otherwise, you're going to have to unload in Venice. Formerly, Venice still acknowledges Byzantine authority, but its power now rests on its own strength. and soon that strength will be tested on a far greater stage, as Europe is swept into an age of holy war, intended to reclaim Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the name of Christ. These campaigns, soon to be known as the Crusades, will draw in kings and knights, merchants and sailors, all bound for the East.

25:20For the armies involved, getting to the Holy Land is half the battle. Most crusaders march overland, gathering from across Western Europe and traveling east through what is now Germany, Hungary, and down through the Balkans before crossing into Asia Minor and on toward Jerusalem. But sea routes are just as vital. To move men, horses, and supplies quickly across the Mediterranean to the Levant, the coastal lands of modern-day Syria, Lebanon, in Israel, you need ships. And no one is better placed to provide them than Venice. Venice certainly was an early adopter in the Crusades. The First Crusade is called by Pope Urban II in 1095.

26:05And there's an enormous amount of enthusiasm in Western Europe for the First Crusade. Venice puts together the largest single fleet for the First Crusade. But because it's so big, it takes them longer to put it together. So by the time they actually sail out of Venice, the crusade is basically over with. But they still sail. The Doge leads them to the Holy Land, and they help the new king of Jerusalem to conquer Beirut and some of the other areas along there. Whilst still bound by religion, Venice does not join these holy wars out of piety alone. Every voyage is a contract, and every transport deal is a fresh chance for profit.

26:53Ferrying crusaders becomes big business. And with each campaign, Venice tightens its grip on the trade routes that connect Europe to the riches of the East. With the conquest of Jerusalem, it meant that it was now safe for Christian pilgrims to go to the holy sites. And so you would go to an Italian port and buy passage. So Venice does a very good business in transporting people from Venice to the Holy Land. But the course of holy war never did run smooth.