TourIstra

VENICE - Boat excursion

A pleasant cruise, cca. 2 hrs, you come to one of the world’s most beautiful and most romantic towns – Venice. Upon arrival in Venice you proceede to St.Mark’s Square, crossing the Academy bridge, followed by many others while admiring the city’s renaissance architecture and historical buildings, of which each has its own story. After you visit a town, leisure to explore this legendary city before 17:30 hrs when you have to take the same boath to go back to Umag.

According to legend, Venice was founded on March 25, 421 AD, by Roman refugees fleeing from the Goths. However, no historical records exist concerning the origins of Venice. The city was probably founded as a result of the influx of refugees into the marshes of the Po estuary following the invasions which ravaged north-eastern Italy, starting with Quadi and Marcomanni in 166-168, who destroyed the main center in the area, the current Oderzo. The Roman defenses were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, by the Huns led by Attila. The last and most enduring was that of the Lombards in 568. This left the Eastern Roman Empire, a small strip of coast in current Veneto, and the main administrative and religious entities were therefore transferred to this remaining dominion. New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The Byzantine domination of central and northern Italy was largely eliminated by the conquest of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751 by Aistulf. Dueing this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the “duke”, later “doge”) was located in Malamocco. Settlement across the islands in the lagoon probably increased in correspondence with the Lombard conquest of the Byzantine territories. In 775-776, the bishopric seat of Olivolo (Helipolis) was created. During the reign of duke Agnello Particiaco (811-827) the ducal seat was moved from Malamocco to the highly protected Rialto (Rivoalto, “High Shore”) island, the current location of Venice. The monastery of St. Zachary and the first ducal palace and basilica of St. Mark, as well as a walled defence (civitatis murus) between Olivolo and Rialto were subsequently built here. In 828, the new city’s prestige was raised by the theft of the relics of St. Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria, which were placed in the new basilica. The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop and as Byzantine power waned, an increasingly anti-Eastern character emerged, leading to the growth of autonomy and eventual independence.

Note: you must have valid travel documents with you.