Rise of Venice Fall of Byzantium

See also related post Was the Fall of Rome Important?
 

Palazzo comes with canal

Numerous countries have a rich history of migrations and kingdoms.  But in Turkey, there was the rise and fall of not one but two great empires – Byzantine and Ottoman – that ironically ruled almost the same expanse from Algeria to Iraq.  They also had a tremendous influence on trade – both in goods and ideas – being the terminus of the Silk Routes from the Far East and South Asia and via Venice into Europe.

 

Not! Venetian Navy

Venice made a fortune sailing armies to the crusades.  Their ship designs were so superior that their shipyards were classified top secret.  As they gained success in the Crusades, Venezia asserted its power.

   

Fall of Byzantine Empire

The Fourth Crusade was supposed to re-take Jerusalem.  At a huge cost, the Venetians built extra ships to transport of a huge army.  However, the crusading kingdoms did not pay the agreed amount.  Meanwhile there was a coup in Byzantium.  The Venetians agreed to help overthrow the usurper.  But they really wanted to recoup the costs of their ships.

Not Egyptian, not Obelisk

So in 1204, Venice led the crusaders to the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom.  The crusaders obliged with the Sack of Constantinople.  Today, almost nothing is left of the centre of the capital.  One of the few remaining monuments is the 32 m high Walled Obelisk that marked one end of the spine of an oval racing track.  If looks like blah today, consider that it once was lined with gilded bronze plaques with friezes.  The crusaders stole everything but the blocks.



Another tremendous treasure stolen by the Venetians was the Pala d’Oro. This Byzantine gold altar screen is decorated with just a few gems — 1,300 pearls, 300 emeralds, 300 sapphires ... just to mention a few!  It was commissioned from Byzantine goldsmiths in 976.
 

Races and Riots




Also gone are the four famous 4th century BC Greek (now considered Roman) gilded "bronze" horses.  Appropriately, the four life-sized horses were depicted pulling a quadriga (chariot) on top of the boxes where the nobility sat.  They were very symbolic considering that this was the premiere horseracing arena.  The Hippodrome racetrack is where the Nika Riots led to the execution of 30,000 people.



Race Horses on
Basilica San Marco

Very little is left of the Hippodrome today and you can appreciate why it is overlooked by guidebooks and tourists alike.  You have to travel to Venice to see one of the few remnants.  The gilded horses were transported by ship and placed above the porch of Basilica San Marco. If you look at the photo carefully, you can see the proud horses, which have since been moved indoors into a museum. 

Rise of the Venetian Empire

 

Venetians seriously considered themselves the protectors of one quarter of the Roman Empire.  Thus while Europe embraced the Gothic style, Venezia developed its own Venetian-Byzantine style.  Spoils of the Sack were strewn around the Piazza San Marco and thus visible as one docked at the quay.

After 1204, Venice and Genoa became the main naval powers and seized most of the Byzantine land holdings in Italy, Dalmatian and Aegean Coasts.The first bank in the world was established in Venice in 1157. Modern banking started with merchant banks, which provided capital to companies in the form of share ownership instead of loans. Merchant banking progressed from financing trade on one’s own behalf to holding deposits for settlement of notes written by traders.

Transporting large sums of heavy metal money over long distances in the Middle Ages was neither secure not practical. So the merchant’s “benches” (banco in Italian) in the great grain markets became centres for holding money against a "bill" (nota).  Our word “bank” is derived from the Italian word banco and bank note comes from "nota di banco".  The first true banknotes were issued by Stockholms Banco.

Marco Polo on the 1000 Lira Bank Note

By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. It is not by accident that it had incredible glass blowing, art and architecture.  It is not by accident that Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) was a merchant from Venice.  He brought back the idea of paper money from China.  The first true banknotes were issued by Stockholms Banco.
 

Palazzo Ducale

Venice was now a European power and had to have a palace to show off. Built in 1340, the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) housed not only the leader (duca) but also the government offices. 
 



Saracenic Arches

The Venetian architectural style is a fusion of both Byzantine, Islamic and Gothic elements.  The Saracenic-Gothic arches added a distinctive Islamic feel and break up what would be a boring, massive rectangular façade.  Windows, arches and colonnades had the feel of lacework and made the palazzi feel light.  The stone or marble frame around the main floor windows – used for the first time in the Gothic period to highlight the importance of these central windows – might have been borrowed from the Islamic alfiz.

The Doge's Palace is filled with art by Renaissance masters like Tintoretto, Titian, Tiepolo, Veronese, Bellini and Palladio.  Did you notice that Italian artists are known by one name?  – Like football stars today.

 

The Sack of Constantinople weakened the Byzantine Empire and gradually its area decreased, well before the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.  In fact, the Ottomans had already conquered Asia Minor and had their capital in Bursa.  When they used cannons to decimate Constantinople defences, only Thrace and the City were still held by the Byzantine Empire.  Thracians were another people like the Lycians in Kaş who migrated both east to India and west to Turkey and Europe – in other words,  Proto-Indo-European (aka Aryan) tribes.   

Birth of Venus

The Italian city-states formed a bastion of merchant classes (aka capitalism) against the decay of feudalism.  One should not be surprise that the Renaissance was born in Italia. 

The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 was NOT the start of the Renaissance; it was the increase in the wealth of the city-states in Italy.  It was aided by the decline in trust of the Church thanks to the Black Plague. 

With their wealth resulting from domination of the silk trade with the east, the Venetian merchant class could put money into art and architecture.
 

Last Post:  Birth of Venice Fall of Rome

Next Post: Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Birth of Venice Fall of Rome

Bella Venezia

See also related post Was the Fall of Rome Important?

Venice is not just a pretty face

Our odyssey to Turkey was fabulous for meeting people as well learning about their art and architecture.  We also lived and worked many years in Italy, which is fabulously rich in art and architecture.  Actually there is a very strong historical link between them.  

Fall of the Roman Empire

The reasons for the fall of Rome (the city) are described in detail in the Amazing Rome Walk 3 - The Roman Empire Did NOT Fall.  

Blue Mosque Stained Glass

What is amazing is the close link between the Fall of Rome and the Birth of Venice.  This relationship continued as Turkey went through two imperial eras, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire.  A previous post mentioned this link in reference to the gorgeous stained glass that Venice gave as a gift during the construction of the Blue Mosque.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, the Roman Empire continued to exist!  As explained in the Hagia Sophia post, the people of that time still called it the Roman Empire even though the capital was now Constantinople.  It was only renamed Byzantine in the 16th century by a German historian. 

The Byzantine and Ottoman Empires ironically ruled almost the same expanse from Algeria to Iraq.  They also had a tremendous influence on trade – both in goods and ideas – being the terminus of the Silk Routes from the Far East and South Asia and into Europe.

Constantinople controlled the sea routes in the Black, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.  This is why Istanbul became such an important and large city.  In 1000 CE, Constantinople had a population of approximately 500,000 people.

 

Birth of Venice

Sleepy Venice

By 540 CE, Byzantium had reclaimed parts of Italy and the western empire. Sleepy Venezia built on sand bars and canals was one of the Byzantine provinces.  In 810 CE, it became the independent Serene Republic of Venice. 

That's Venetian Marco Polo! 

The lira was their currency – the same name as used in Turkey today because libra (lira) was the standard weight of Troy silver used by the Roman Empire!  Translated into the local language, this is the origin of the currency names for the French livre and English pound. Even the symbol is the same £ as in Roman times.  Wow! How interconnected we are.

Pretty in Pink

Venice wasn't strong enough to defend itself and wanted protection from the German kingdoms.  Venice developed a navy and became a trading partner of Byzantium, who was content to buy the allegiance of its emerging province to preserve the appearance of Byzantine rule. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Venice obtained trading privileges from the Byzantine Empire that gave them a distinct advantage over their European trade competitors. 

Venetian Navy Showing Off 

It is always about trade and naval power.  That is why Venice became one of the largest cities in Europe. By 1000 CE Venice had a population of approximately 70,000 people; Rome had 50,000; Paris and London were much smaller!

But Venice is not just the pretty place we know today.  Venezia played a pivotal role in changing Europe not just in terms of trade but also in the transition from feudalism to capitalism, from the Medieval Age to the Renaissance.

Soon the Venetian gold ducat was accepted as currency throughout the Near East.  With trade also comes ideas and an openness to other cultures.  Any city with wealth and power wants monuments to proclaim its glory. So Venice built a magnificent national church, Basilica San Marco, from 1073 to 1117.  No, it is not named for Marco Polo!  He wasn't born yet. 

Basilica San Marco

St. Mark’s Basilica is a replica of the 6th century Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.  It’s based on a Greek cross design with five domes resting on pendentives similar to Hagia Sophia.  It is decorated with the quintessential Byzantine art form developed by Byzantine mosaicists from nearby Ravenna.  With its opulent gold mosaics, it is an expression of Venetian wealth and power.  There’s enough mosaic in San Marco to cover 1.5 football fields!

The bulbous canopies over the domes that have a distinct Islamic feel.  Another Eastern influence appears in the Saracenic arches. The pointed arch originated in the Byzantine and Sassanian (Persian) empires.  But here is the smack down – it originated there in early Christian buildings.  After being copied by Muslim architects, it become the quintessential characteristic of Islamic architecture!

Venetian Gothic

The architecture of Venezia was not Italian.  It was unique from the rest of Europe. Venetian buildings combined Gothic, Byzantine and Islamic elements.  Did this reflect the average citizen's view of Venice as the gateway to the East?

Last Post:  Tulip Mania

Next Post: Rise of Venice, Fall of Byzantium