"The terror of Attila the Hun had ravaged the hills of northern Italy." "The refugees fled to a small group of islands in a marshy lagoon." "This bleak wasteland would become the most beautiful city on earth..." "Venice." "Its people were fierce in war and rich in trade." "And then one morning, in April 1204, in pursuit of money and power" "Venice led a vast army into one of the bloodiest battles in history... the sack of Constantinople." "With victory, came the power to dominate the Mediterranean and a new empire that would span East and West." "Venice was now the centre of the world." "It became rich beyond its wildest dreams and it spent its money on great new buildings, beautiful paintings and sculptures." "This is the story of the greatest flowering of art in Venice's history." "There seemed no end to what this city could achieve." "But as the city's painters and architects became ever more daring and outrageous" "Venice was to make many enemies who would bring this period of great beauty and opulence to a crashing end." "It all began with a mysterious arrival." "In 1295 a man staggered into this courtyard." "He wore torn, alien looking clothes." "It seemed he didn't belong in Venice, but he was coming back home." "His name... was Marco Polo." "And he had just returned after 24 years of travel through China and other strange and fantastic lands." "With the bizarre clothes, the weird accent and the savage look, he had become a stranger to his own family." "A great banquet was given to celebrate Marco Polo's return." "At this feast, he was to reveal his discoveries, things that Europe had never dreamt of." "Polo had returned with more that just jewels." "He brought back knowledge of a new world that was to make Venice rich." "He told of extraordinary spices from India, the finest quality of silk, gold and silver from Malabar and the astonishing riches of the Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan, with his millions of ships, his millions of horses and millions of temples." "Marco Polo became known as Marco Milione or simply Milione, Mr Millions, because the people of Venice didn't believe a word he said." "To make fun of him, they even called this courtyard Il Milione." "But these distant lands were truly as rich as he said." "And Venice would establish a unique network of trading routes to the East." "The city would be the gateway between Europe and the Orient bringing us huge power and riches." "Venice was truly the centre of the world." "And the place where the people of East and West literally met was in the Rialto, Venice's trading centre." "On a typical day, any time between the 11 th and 15th centuries, this place would have contained the richest mix of people to be found anywhere in the world." "The Rialto market with all the shops, stores, people, it felt like an Eastern souk, almost a kasbah, and still it does." "In this tiny area of Venice," "Europe could sample the world's most exotic goods, strange fruits from Africa, perfumes from India minerals and fabric dyes from Malaya, and pepper, cloves and other spices from Arabia." "More than a centre of trade, the Rialto was the banking centre of Venice." "And Venice's banks were way ahead of their time." "This bar is the site of the first Giro Bank, the place where credit was born, where paper replaced gold." "And the first ever bank loans were issued here." "During the 12th and the 13th century, this square was the financial centre of the world." "While the rest of Europe languished in the feudal age of masters and serfs" "Venetian bankers gave financial backing to a new class of merchant adventurers." "It was to fuel a modern credit boom." "The spirit of Marco Polo and the money of Banco Giro created men like my ancestor, Alvise da Mosto." "Every great Venetian family had an explorer and in my house, we have a statue of ours." "This is my great-great-great-grandfather Alvise da Mosto." "He was an explorer and at the age of 22, he discovered Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean." "Now, I am 40 and with my little boat," "I go around the lagoon." "That is the difference between me and him." "Alvise da Mosto's incredible journey took him beyond the Christian world, to pagan Africa." "Trade would be the new religion." "The explorer merchants roamed from Jerusalem, in the Holy Land, to Muslim Egypt." "From Beijing in China to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, the city we now call Istanbul." "They travelled to make money but they also brought back new ideas of art." "This great building is the Fondaco dei Turchi." "The word fondaco derives from the Arabic funduc, meaning trading post." "Dating from the early 13th century the building served as lodging for foreign traders and a warehouse for their goods." "The tall arches were inspired by Byzantium." "The layout, a central courtyard with lodgings above, was an idea borrowed from the East." "Buildings like this would change the look of Venice forever." "But nothing is simple in Venice." "Here, Byzantine style of the East mixed with Western Gothic style of northern Europe and Venetian buildings became a strange, almost alien mixture." "No city in the world looked like this." "The elongated round arch from the East merged with the Western Gothic arch, creating an elaborate new style, a unique architecture, Venetian Gothic." "And it was this style that would stamp its identity on Venice's Grand Canal," "the city's greatest waterway." "It stretches from the great basin of St Mark at one side of the city... winding snake-like to the great trading district of the Rialto." "This is the main artery of Venice." "All canals lead in to the Grand Canal." "Throughout the 14th and the 15th centuries, fabulous Venetian Gothic palaces rose up along the Grand Canal." "It was here that Venice's great traders would show off their wealth and splendour." "These palaces were all built for merchants." "And they would double as a place of work and a home." "On the ground floor would be the warehouse space for merchandise." "And on the first floor would be the grand living quarters." "But these palaces had new features which made them uniquely Venetian." "Every palace had two very different entrances, one on the water and one on land." "The land entrance was often small and lost down a dark back passage." "By far the more important was the water entrance." "Doubling as both a ceremonial entrance and the easiest place to unload merchandise, the Venetian water entrances were lavish shows of wealth and power." "The canal facade was most definitely the front of the house." "It had to impress everyone from private visitors to business rivals." "Think about it, every one of these palaces was the headquarters of a family business." "The facades were a way of representing success." "Quite simply, the more money you had, the grander your facade." "But as Venice was inclined to show off it's wealth more and more, even the back entrances came in for some extravagant treatment." "This is the Scala de Bovolo, a sight famous all over the world." "Not because of the palace but because of the staircase." "It's a work of art in itself." "Land was scarce in Venice and buildings were crowded together." "So light was vital." "The early windows were made like bottle ends." "The round discs held in place by lead." "Venice pioneered the production of window glass when other cities had only canvas or rags to keep out the wind and the rain." "Glass allowed the palazzos to shimmer and shine in the glory of the Venetian light reflecting off the canals." "One palace more than any other represents this great period for Venice, the Ca' d'Oro" "The name means "The house of gold"." "And when it was first built, the facade was covered with glistening gold leaf paint." "The Venetians had started building their houses out of mud and straw but now they were building them out of gold." "Look how far Venice had come." "The Ca' d'Oro was designed by the architect brothers" "Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon and built during the 1420s for the grand Contarini family, one of the most respected families in Venice." "They too traded in spices, fabric and dyes." "This would have been their warehouse space." "But what a warehouse." "In the internal courtyard is a well of red marble from Verona, decorated with the figures of Charity, Justice and Fortitude." "And then intricately carved Moorish style staircase that shows us just how Eastern looking Venetian architecture could be." "It's hard to imagine now but to a visitor of the 15th century, the front of this palace might have seemed as if it was built by aliens." "It was the greatest example of Venetian Gothic architecture, a style that was unique in the world." "The crenelation around the roof is yet another brilliant marriage of Eastern and Western elements." "The marble columns were brought from quarries in Greece and Verona." "And the bas-relief panels were looted from buildings in the far Eastern reaches of the Venetian empire." "Ingredients may have come from far and wide but this brilliant confection could only be found on the Grand Canal in Venice." "Through the rise and rise of the merchant class, trade prospered and money flowed into Venice." "Money for fine architecture was followed by money spent on fine art." "Artists like Giovanni and Gentile Bellini and Vitore Carpaccio emerged as much sought after men in the life of the city." "And the Venetian authorities recognised art as another trade to be supported by organised guilds." "This painting by Carpaccio shows life on the Grand Canal in the 15th century." "The crowds pouring across the old, wooden Rialto bridge, merchants swagger along the canal's side with all the confidence of princes." "The Grand Canal is teeming with life." "Even on the rooftops, people hang their washing out to dry among the chimney pots." "The city's confidence was founded on its empire and its trade routes." "But something terrible was about to hit Venice." "Turkish armies laid siege to Constantinople." "The capital of Byzantium." "For 250 years the city had been key to Venetian prosperity." "On the 29th of May, 1453," "Sultan Mahomet II's terrifying army of Turks marched into Constantinople and took the city." "Venice had lost it's most important imperial outpost." "Now the Islamic Ottoman Empire dominated the East." "If Venice was to retain any trading influence in Constantinople, the Venetians would have to make friends with the Turks." "So who did Venice send to Constantinople?" "Not a soldier, not a sailor, not even a politician." "But an artist." "By the end of the 15th century" "Venice knew that art was its most powerful asset." "They sent the painter Gentile Bellini to win over Sultan Mahomet II." "Gentile had just finished decorating the doge's palace." "He had barely travelled beyond the Venetian lagoon, but he took with him the secret of Venetian art" "and the promise of painting a great portrait of the Sultan himself." "With its realism and psychological insight, this painting was a revelation at the court of the Sultan." "The picture bridged the divide between the Christian and Islamic worlds." "Unlike any other major European trading power," "Venice was happy to do business with the non-Christian world." "It was behaviour condemned by the Pope." "As we say in Venice..." "Siamo Veneziani prima e poi Cristiani." "We are Venetian first and Christians second." "Art and trade before faith." "But if Venice's secular attitude allowed trade to flourish the city knew better than to trust the increasingly expansionist Turks." "So Venice would smile at the East, but be ready for a fight at any moment." "This is the Arsenale, a temple to military and trading power," "Venice's shipbuilding and weapons factory." "The engine that ran the Venetian empire." "It occupied the whole easternmost boundary of the city." "This place was so important that the whole of Venice kept time according to work hours at the Arsenale." "At sunrise every morning, the bell in the campanile would ring out across the city." "And thousands of Venetians would make their way to Arsenale." "The bell is still known as La Marangona, the carpenter, named after the workers who had half an hour to get to the factory." "Here, they worked every hour of daylight to ensure Venetian trade routes were never threatened." "This place could produce 200 ships in a month." "That's 50 ships in a week, seven per day." "It was the first factory production line in the world." "All this in the second half of the 15th century at a time when English carpenters took months just to build one ship." "But something very strange, even wonderful, had happened at the Arsenale." "Just to the left, on the southern most water entrance, almost pushed to one side, is a truly revelatory moment in Venetian architecture." "This is the land gate to the Arsenale, built in 1460." "Its scale is modest but its look is triumphant." "It is the first classical structure in the city, its roots firmly in the ancient world of Greece and Rome." "For now, this wonderful gateway would sit here alone, out of time and out of place in this Gothic city." "But on one fateful night... in 1514... the opportunity to rebuild Venice was presented in the most terrifying way." "On the 10th of January, 1514, Venice burned." "But how could this be?" "Fighting fires in Venice should be easy." "There is water everywhere." "Alas, Venice was in the grip of winter." "The canals were frozen solid." "The city burned for 24 hours." "The whole of the Rialto, Venice's commercial centre, was destroyed." "This was the great fire of Venice." "A tragedy." "But also a great opportunity, they would have to rebuild." "And there was a choice, Gothic or classical." "And the choice was classical." "Out of the tragedy would come triumphalism, and one of its most famous monuments, the Rialto Bridge." "The old wooden bridge had to be replaced." "Now this important thoroughfare linking the commercial heart of the Rialto to the political heart of San Marco would be a monument to permanence and power." "An architectural competition was held attracting the best of Italian architects." "Even Michelangelo entered." "But Venice, being Venice, would choose one of its own to build the emblem of the new age." "Michelangelo's design was thrown out and the job was given to a little regarded architect who'd done some repair work for the Doge," "Antonio da Ponte." "And just like everything else in Venice, the design was fuelled by trade." "With the shops that lined it, the bridge became an extension of the Rialto market itself." "The winning design had one giant single span of over 90 feet across the canal." "Above it, a classical arcade of finest white marble from Istria, meeting at the middle in a great arch." "The enormous weight of the bridge is supported by more than 12,000 wooden stakes, sunk into the shifting ground on either side." "From far, the Rialto bridge appears so gentle, so light." "But as nearer you go, you feel the power of the stones." "When they built it, they had to strengthen both sides for 100 metres." "It's incredible." "After 500 years... it's still like the first day." "It's perfect." "It's strange but... it's always an emotion to pass under." "Like it was the first time." "Oh-oh!" "And after 500 years, it's still perfect." "Same stones." "The angels on the sides..." "Because a bridge is something against nature and you have to put yourself in the angels' hands." "For da Ponte it was over." "The Rialto bridge, his one monument to posterity." "But already a battle had begun for the architectural soul of Venice." "Just as Venice had made the Gothic its own, so it would reinterpret classicism." "It would be a battle of architects." "But whose classicism would win?" "This is Jacopo Sansovino, a charismatic man who made his buildings rich and ornate." "This is Andrea Palladio." "He was clever, but he knew it." "His designs were monumental." "The story of their rivalry would take Venice to new heights of beauty." "But it would come at a difficult time for the Republic." "Let me explain." "The Republic of Venice was losing power." "It needed to feel solid, lasting, impenetrable." "So Sansovino and Palladio were trying to rebuild it as a great ancient city." "And classical architecture gave the feeling of order and security to Venice." "Ciao." "Andrea Palladio was a brilliant scholar of ancient architecture." "But his designs were too bold for the conservative Venetians." "Palladio was frequently rejected in favour of Jacopo Sansovino, an out-going, healthy living man who was fond of cucumbers." "With his charm, Sansovino had quickly found favour with the Venetian establishment." "Sansovino was successful, popular and well connected." "By 1529, he was employed as the Superintendent of Works for St Mark's Square and the doge's palace." "The chief architect of Venice." "His buildings were certainly bold but their elaborate facades seemed to the authorities to complement the older Venetian Gothic." "It looked as though Palladio's cause was hopeless but fate, or incompetence, would intervene." "While Palladio struggled to get work in Venice," "Sansovino started a building that would dominate his life." "It would make him imprisoned and bankrupt but at the end, it was a triumph." "It was the library of St Mark." "This is classicism, following the rules of ancient Rome, with its fine Doric arcade below and Ionic upper storey." "But it is classicism with a Venetian flourish." "Hailed in the city as the richest, most ornate building since Antiquity." "It's as though Sansovino was playing to his audience." "Confident of Venice's love of ornate decoration, he covered the building with fine detail, put in the frieze, and graceful figures on the balustrade." "But Sansovino had got carried away." "On the 18th of December, 1545, disaster struck." "The ground floor vault over the main hall collapsed, bringing down the floor above it." "Sansovino was thrown into jail." "Sansovino had fallen from grace, from superstar architect to common criminal." "He had blamed the collapse of the building on frost and the gunfire from a nearby ship." "But the authorities held him personally responsible." "Sansovino was made to pay for the rebuilding himself." "It took him 25 years." "At last, the time had come for the radical vision of Andrea Palladio." "This is the church of San Francesco della Vigna." "The interior was designed by Sansovino but the exterior was given to Andrea Palladio, the new star of Venetian architecture." "Quite simply," "Palladio has taken all Sansovino has done and he's made it bigger and bolder." "This building, more than any other, signalled the fall of Sansovino and the rise of Palladio." "Palladio brought something entirely new to Venice." "He took the classicism of Rome and made it even greater." "His buildings felt as though they would last forever." "And whatever their size, his structures seemed enormous, monumental." "But perhaps Palladio's greatest work is the monastery and church of San Georgio Maggiore." "When this was built it shocked and astonished the Venetians." "The huge columns, the triangular porticos were like nothing they had ever seen." "And even if they didn't like it it would have turned their heads and screamed, "Look at me."" "Inside, Palladio even incorporates his love of circular, ancient temples by planning the church's shape around a huge dome placed exactly at the centre of the building." "With this and other churches in Venice," "Palladio was at last hailed as the architectural genius of the age." "Palladio's great triumphs allowed Venetians to take refuge in the look of their city." "But they could not mask the reality." "The foundations of Venice's success were crumbling away." "In 1497, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama had rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa." "It would change the trading map of the world." "It created a new trade route by ship to the East, to India, China and Central Asia." "A faster and a cheaper route, a route that bypassed Venice." "Venice had been the gateway to the East but the trade routes were largely across land." "Often the terrain was dangerous and difficult and a camel train could only carry a fraction of the goods that could go by ship." "The news of Vasco da Gama's discovery travelled fast." "There was now little point in European traders using Venice as a stop off or even an intermediary trading post." "When the news hit the Rialto, banks closed overnight." "This was a total nightmare." "Almost overnight, Venice was penniless, facing ruin." "They really had to do something to survive." "But what they did shocked the rest of the Christian world." "The Jews were reviled by the Catholic Church." "But at a time when much of Europe was expelling them from its cities," "Venice saw the Jews as great traders and money-makers." "Like the Venetians themselves, their trading contacts spread far and wide." "In 1516, Venice set up a Jewish quarter in the city." "And before long, Jews arrived from all over Europe." "They brought money, expertise and trading contacts." "This is where they had to live, an island at the heart of Venice." "In this island, there was an old forge and the Venetian word for a forge was ghetto." "This was the first Jewish ghetto in the world." "And it gave its name to the concept of captivity and cruelty that exists till now." "And the marks of the gates are still here, look." "The Jews were heavily taxed, forced to wear yellow hats as a mark of distinction, and the gates were locked at nightfall." "The guards on the gates were Christians, paid for by the Jews." "Yet, despite their treatment," "Venice's Jewish population flourished." "And life was better in Venice than just about anywhere else in Europe." "Venetian Jews were moneylenders, pawn brokers, merchants, doctors and dealers in second-hand goods." "The ghetto is the place you still come in Venice for second-hand goods." "As the Jewish community expanded, the ghetto grew upwards." "These houses are higher than most Venetian houses, as more floors were added to accommodate more people." "The windows are so close together because the ceilings are so low." "Many of the buildings were linked internally by passages and staircases and contain some of Venice's great hidden treasures." "This is one of four synagogues inside the houses of the ghetto." "It is like no other synagogue in the world." "Jewish architects were forbidden in Venice so this synagogue was built by a Venetian, and you can tell." "It is typical of the Venetian love of show and wealth." "And it feels...more like a theatre than a place of worship." "After Vasco da Gama's dramatic discovery," "Venice's deal with the Jews brought the city back from the brink of disaster." "But once again, it rocked Venice's relations with the Catholic Church." "As Venice turned its back on the Church, so did its artists." "One saucy young painter took Venetian painting to a new level of beauty, sensuality and ungodly eroticism." "His name was Tiziano Vecellio." "In his lifetime, he was to become Venice's most famous artist." "But his fate would be horribly linked to that of the city." "We know him by the name Titian." "This is where Titian lived." "His studio was at the end of the garden." "As his fame grew, he entertained scholars, artists and many of the most beautiful women in Venice." "Titian set a new style for the artist, no longer subservient to religion and the Church." "His friends were free thinking painters, poets and philosophers." "People like Veronese, the poet Aretino and the musician Irene di Spilimbergo." "With Titian's circle, the idea of the artist as a romantic figure was born." "Someone who enjoyed life as an individual, free of the dictates of a rich patron." "Titian was a Venetian." "Like all of us Venetians, trade was in his blood." "He started to see the financial possibilities of his paintings." "Painterly mythologies, allegories and portraits flowed from his studio, all in his distinctive style." "He had taken the realistic brush stroke of the Florentine Renaissance artists and given it a softer, more expressive edge." "Royals and noblemen from all over the world sent agents to Venice to buy Titian's paintings." "Kings and princes vied with each other to be painted by the great man." "And Titian got rich on the proceeds." "Now art was a commodity to be traded in, to get rich on." "It was fast becoming Venice's most important export." "And among Titian's hundreds of sitters were the beautiful women of Venice." "It was in the representations of these women as Venus that Titian was to take art and Venice to a deeply immoral place it had never been before." "Like his portraits, his nudes celebrate life in a new secular way." "His bodies are real." "They have a feeling of real flesh, of carnal." "One painting more than any shows the spirit of the age." "Titian had been commissioned by the Duke of Urbino's son to paint an image of Venus." "This was the result of the commission." "The Venus of Urbino." "The nude had appeared in art for many centuries before." "And the nudes of the Renaissance had become erotic icons." "But there was something in their figures that was chaste." "They closed their eyes or looked away from the gaze of the viewer." "But The Venus of Urbino was different." "She looked straight at the viewer." "In an earlier painting by Titian's teacher, Giorgione, the goddess of love touches herself but her eyes are closed." "She's in her own world." "As her hand creeps between her legs acknowledging her sex," "Titian makes Venus look straight at us." "That is what made this the most shocking and astonishing picture of its time." "No other nude had ever stared out at the viewer." "Venice's relationship with the Catholic Church had been already taken to the limit." "But now Titian and a new group of artists went too far with their unchristian art." "The Church was already unhappy about Titian's seductive painting," "The Assumption of the Virgin, in the Frari church." "But the paintings of Titian's friend, Paulo Veronese, scandalised the authorities." "This is the church of San Sebastiano, almost entirely decorated by Veronese." "But his versions of traditional Christian scenes were scandalously modern." "Veronese makes no effort to depict religious scenes in their traditional surroundings." "He moved historical figures from one scene to another with little respect for religious history." "He introduces humorous and irreverent details." "In this painting, The Feast at Cana, he even had the audacity to portray Venetian painters as the musicians entertaining Christ." "The bearded bass viola player on the right, wearing red, is Titian." "The musician in white, to the left, is Veronese himself." "Veronese was brilliant, and the Church wanted brilliant paintings." "But he was teasing them with his irreverent work." "And when he was commissioned to paint The Last Supper in 1573, he pushed the tolerance of the Catholic Church one step too far." "Veronese's painting of The Last Supper was considered deeply blasphemous." "And he incurred the wrath of the Vatican secret police, The Inquisition." "The Church condemned the painting for showing buffoons, drunkards, dwarves and similar vulgarities." "Veronese was forced to change the name and subject of the picture to The Feast at the House of Levi." "But Venetian artists wouldn't stop breaking Catholic laws." "The poet Aretino defied the Pope by publishing a set of pornographic prints already banned by the Vatican." "Titian's friend Aretino wrote a sonnet to accompany each image." "These artists were sacrilegious but they saw their art as more important than anything else." "Ultimately, Venice would pay the price." "During its golden age, Venice committed ungodly acts." "As the city's population reached an all time high" "Titian and his friends might have gone too far." "And on the evening of the 25th of June of 1575, it seemed that the vengeance of the most biblical kind was delivered upon the city... and its most famous artist." "Titian and Venice were struck by the plague." "The disease spread like wild fire through the city." "And for the Venetians, it seemed like a punishment from God, or worse, a punishment from God ordered by the Pope." "The symptoms were severe chills, vomiting of blood and huge boils that would form a black crust when they burst." "If you were lucky, you died within the day." "If you were unlucky, you might live on in agony for a week." "Venetian plague doctors patrolled the alleys and canals with only capes and snout-nosed masks full of pepper for protection." "The plague has had a massive impact on the history of Venice." "This is a traveller's city and disease has travelled to and from it many times." "But it was from the East that it first came." "The route that brought Venice its riches would also be the route that brought so much death." "Victims were dying by the hundreds every day." "Criminals were freed from the city's prisons to deal with the corpses and ferry the ill." "With the city overflowing with the dead there was only one place to take them," "the lagoon." "All around would be death." "Galleys full of dying people guarded by warships to make sure no one escaped." "Those who did try to escape would be hung over the water." "This was the victims' destination." "The old plague hospital of Lazzareto Vecchio." "The island is now home to no one but a pack of stray dogs, wild, like the souls of the dead." "Someone unfortunate enough to experience this hell wrote about what he saw." "The stench was unbearable." "The air filled with the groans and pained sighs of the dying." "The smoke rising from the burned bodies of the dead." "The sick were placed three or four to a bed." "In agony, unable to speak from the pain they were suffering, they were thrown onto carts, piled up with corpses." "For two years they were brought here and they died in their thousands, their tens of thousands." "Most of the bodies were burned here." "Only the dead of the noble families were taken away." "Even they didn't get any marked graves." "But in the deeper reaches of the lagoon lies Venice's true island of the dead." "The plague dead of Venice's noble families were taken to the island of Santalliano." "Here they were not burned but buried in shallow, mass graves" "where they lie to this day." "The only victim to get a marked grave was Titian himself." "On this island lie the remains of all the other nobles who died." "Fragments of human bones everywhere." "We'll never know who these people were." "Maybe friends of our ancestors." "Childs that lost the chance of life." "Maybe death was the end of suffering." "Who knows?" "At the height of the plague, 51,000 had died." "Almost a third of the population of Venice." "From her place at the centre of the world," "Venice had fallen." "Now she was a city to avoid." "It seemed like it was the end for Venice." "But the city would make a comeback." "A comeback of the most surprising kind."