Venice and its policy against pandemics

Between 1348 and 1630 the Venetian government was busy fighting numerous plague epidemics like the rest of the world.

This deadly disease reached Europe from the East through the circulation of goods and people, and it spread out quickly, proving to be a scourge for the population. The worst plagues for Venice were those of 1576 and 1630 that decimated its population by one-third.

Which were the measures that the Venetian government took and put in place against it?

When the government of Venice understood the danger and contagiousness of this disease, the first decision made was to isolate their city by closing its land and sea borders.

In 1423 Venice was the first city in Europe to open hospitals for quarantine and for the treatment of plague victims. These hospitals were built on the edge of the city and its lagoon, away from the city center to avoid infections.

Later, in 1486 the Magistracy of Health was founded. Among all the measures it took, like monitoring the death rate, it traced the movements of merchants and travelers in Venice and its dominions. In this regard, it released medical passports certifying the holders’ health status as well as their place of provenance.

In times of plague brotherhoods also lent their help, offering their assistance to the plague victims. Alms and bequests were used to deal with these emergencies by paying for doctors and medicines.

For fear of getting infected, Venetian doctors harnessed themselves well. They wore a mask with a beak that was filled with spices and whatever else there was to protect themselves.

Through the mask you could only see their eyes which were in turn protected by glasses. They also wore a hat, gloves, a very long cloak on which wax was placed for protection and finally in their hands a stick that they used to touch their patients.

Unfortunately there were no immediate remedies to cure the plague because the origin of the disease was not yet known.The only chance people had, was to rely on faith. Starting from the Middle Ages, the Venetians addressed themselves in their prayers to the patron saints in charge of protecting them from the plague such as Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch, to whom they dedicated churches they constructed in their honor.

The triumph of sugar

In the eleventh century at the time of the First Crusade sugar arrived in Venice from Syria in the form of cane. It replaced honey which until then was the only known sweetener in Europe. Thanks to its introduction, a revolution in trade and food took place and a confectionery industry was opened in Venice.

Sugar made many Venetian families rich, such as the Corners of the Ca’ Grande, who let it dry out in their attics. Unfortunately due to those dangerous manufacturing processes, one day their palace caught fire and was completely burnt down.

Between 1500 and 1700 sugar was sprinkled on the dishes of the nobles or modeled beforehand in the kitchens to create sculptures used as embellishments.

Small table decorations were made as well as huge structures that followed particular themes drawn from literature, mythology and other subjects. Some of them were very big and reached the height of two metres.

For the breakfast of king Henry III of Valois, Jacopo Sansovino, famous sixteenth century architect known for his constructions around Saint Mark’s Square, prepared the drawings for the king’s sugar decorations of which nothing remains.

The techniques used for their realization came from sculpture. Sugar was prepared and then poured into a gypsum core which was destroyed when sugar solidified, leaving the created object intact.

Due to the perishable and precarious nature, all the objects created in sugar were given away at the end of the banquets to be eaten.

The only remaining evidences are the recipe books and archival sources. In 1700 the fashion changed and porcelain decorations replaced those triumphs made in sugar.

High tide versus low tide

In Venice, it sometimes happens that due to special weather conditions such as full moon and atmospheric pressure the water level is too high or too low.

High water complicates the life of local people, especially when they walk in the lowest parts of the city where they need to walk on wooden planks and wear rubber boots.

Venetians are aware of those phenomenons and try to adjust their lifestyle as much as they can!

In the last couple of days it has been recorded that the level of the water was 55 cm below the sea level, which is not much as canals are approximately one and a half meter deep. A historical low was registered in 1934, when a tide level of 1, 21 cm below sea level was measured with special tools.

There are no problems with shallow water for public means of transport to circulate in the main canals because they are deeper. The difficulty is above all for ambulances and fire brigade boats that sometimes need to go along narrower and shallower canals.

When it is low tide you can see the bottom of the canals, and you can tell whether they have been recently dredged. The town council follows a program in order to keep up with the cleaning trying to respect schedules. Until more recent times, following old rules, canals were still fenced up for a while in order to be cleaned. As a matter of fact today the less effective way is preferred, that is an excavator that picks up the dirt from the middle of the canal. This procedure is less expensive, but its effect does not last too long.