The Arsenale of Ven

Venice;  Italy;

 Arsenale vas the center of the naval construction ,on the ages of glory of the maritim Republic of Venice.

In order to ensure the supremacy of the sea Venice should also have the opportunity to build their own ships.At first, these ships were built in small private workshops , then in the year 1200 were united into a single large construction site : the Arsenal .( the world arsenale derives from the arabic  ” dar sin’ a ” ,meaning house of industry.)

In this huge area you could find ; ax masters, designers and many skilled workers. The Arsenale dockyard workers called Arsenalotti formed a distinct community in the city , that can guarding the secret of manufacture.The internal organization of the site was at the forefront , with different  departments  of quality control of the raw materials; standardization of many stages of production and even the first assembly line of the history.That allowed to build up to 3 ships per day , which guaranteed to Venice a real record. And was Arsenale that produced the most precious and beloved ship:

The BUCINTORO , a special “two storey parade” ship covered with crimson satin and adorned sculptures of sea bream.

At the Ascension Day, the doge and the most prominent personalities came on board and reached the Adriatic port of Lido.Here the Doge threw overboard the ring , (symbolize the union of Venice with water), and pronounced the solemn formula : We Will marry sea as a sign of true and eternal dominion . Unfortunately the last “bucintoro” did not survive the French occupation .On the eve of departure in 1798, the men of Napoleon tried in vain to sink it in the dock  and then destroy it by ax shots .There are some small fragments saved and preserved today in the Correr Museum.

The golden age of maritime Venice ended with  the changes of the  routes of the comerce;the improuvement of the commercial and navigation techniques. Venice converted the vocation of the commercial town, in the city of crafts and especially art . His coat of arms along with those of other historical Maritime Republics (Amalfi , Pisa , Genoa) appears on the flag of Italian navy , a reminder of his past as a ruler of the seas.

By  http://dipoco.altervista.org/  Cercodiamanti

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