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most walls were constructed of the local reddish brick, using a traditional
lime mortar to allow flexibility. Being cheap, lightweight, and porous,
brick perfectly suited the challenging conditions of the lagoon. Roof tiles
of terracotta enhanced the russet hue of the townscape. Many walls were
originally protected by a thin layer of stucco, colored with brick dust or
even frescoed, though modern restorers often remove these traditional
surfaces, applying renderings that are too thick, too rigid, artificially col-
ored, and too impervious.10 Within the houses, horizontal beams and roof
trusses of spruce, fir, or larch tied the vertical load-bearing walls together;
these coniferous soft woods were lightweight, elastic, and protected from
the damp by their high resin content.
Perhaps the most precious asset of all was the pure white limestone
from Istria, easily imported by boat straight from the quarries to the build-
ing site. This fine-grained stone, almost completely impervious to water,
was the most desirable material for damp-proofing courses, steps, gutters,
window-frames, and a multitude of other purposes. Its uniformity and
durability made it ideal for carved ornament on traceries and balconies.
As a walling material, Istrian stone was always applied as cladding over a
brick core to save expense and weight.
Canals permeate the whole city like veins in a leaf, providing water
access for the transport of merchandise, building materials, and people.
Amid the tidal, brackish channels of the lagoon, however, fresh water sup-
ply was in short supply. In response, traditional builders developed an
ingenious method of conserving rainwater, inspired by the underground
water-conservation systems of the Levant. Water falling on rooftops and
paved surfaces drained into underground cisterns—whether in the court-
yards of houses or in parish campi—where it was filtered through sand to
ensure drinkable quality. It has been estimated that in 1856, cisterns still
underlay 11 per cent of the entire surface area of the city.11
In recent years, building restoration projects have encouraged a more
detailed examination of the building fabric—for instance, work on the
Scuola Grande della Misericordia in the 1990s revealed the existence
of experimental arched foundations, installed by the architect Jacopo
10 E. Danzi et al., “Research for Conservation of the Lagoon Building Culture: Catalogue
of the External Plasterwork in Venetian Buildings,” in, C. A. Fletcher and T. Spencer, eds.,
Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon: State of Knowledge
(Cambridge, 2005), pp. 193–98.
11 Giorgio Gianighian and Paola Pavanini, “Il tessuto gotico,” in Francesco Valcanover
and Wolfgang Wolters, eds., L’architettura gotica veneziana (Venice, 2000), pp. 157–73, on
p. 158.