Into the Lagoon

Venice’s empire grew from a city, and the city emerged from a lagoon. Venetians shaped and were shaped in turn by their natural world, from their earliest days as refugees of a crumbling Roman Empire to the apex of their own imperial reach across the Mediterranean Sea. This is a story of ambition and imposition, stretching back more than a millennium, and taking us to the climate challenges of the present day: Venice’s art, history, and culture seen through the lens of the environment.