No matter how many times one has to see the panorama of this city from the side of the lagoon - in paintings, photographs, color postcards, reality surpasses any image. A beautiful and joyful fairytale city rises from the sea. "Serenissima" ("Most Serene") - this is how Venice has been called from time immemorial. And the great Goethe called this tale "a dream woven from air, water, earth and sky." But from reality you also learn that the city no longer rises among the waves, but plunges into them. It is worth getting to know him, how joy immediately gives way to sadness: fabulously beautiful Venice is in the position of a sinking ship. Now you don't have to climb the stairs to her houses, they are flooded with water. Masses are celebrated in the world famous St. Mark's Cathedral, but when believers humbly lower their eyes to the floor, they see its bizarre curvature due to the settlement of the foundation.
Venice was once the city of sailors and metropolitan trade, and now large-tonnage ships are prohibited from entering the Grande Canal. The surf wave from the ships can flood the first floors of palaces and ancient buildings. As the famous Italian newspaper "Tempo" wrote, "Venice is like a patient from whom the truth about an incurable disease is hidden." Indeed, the sea has long threatened the existence of one of the most beautiful coastal cities in the world.
On November 4, 1966, waves suddenly washed over Venice. The catastrophic flood has clearly shown that this beautiful city can share the fate of the legendary Atlantis by going to the bottom. One of the eyewitnesses of this natural disaster later recalled: “Everyone felt that the centuries-old equilibrium had collapsed, that the city and the lagoon had lost their protective chain … The waves of the sea, driven by the cruellest sirocco, swept across the chain of coastal islands, even in those places where their width was significant. Foundations of ancient palaces, old houses, for which even the gentle lapping of waves raised by swimmers is dangerous, how long could they resist? Reaching an unprecedented height (about two meters above average sea level), emptying out shops, robbing the inhabitants of the first floors, flooding craft workshops, splashing oil from hundreds of storage facilities,after soaking and scattering countless books in libraries, breaking furniture in houses, destroying documents in institutions, the water left. For 24 hours of absolute domination, the water gave the Venetians a menacing look at its power and now it could get out, leaving the inhabitants of another Venice."
During the flood, the electricity went out, the telephone network and gas supply were out of order. Many of the coastal structures were leveled to the ground, it became clear that the natural balance was violated: a few more such disasters - and the "pearl of the Adriatic" will already be difficult to save. The trouble is that the destructive forces are not only in the form of such unexpected attacks. Over the past fifty years, the water level has risen 130 times more than one meter higher than usual. On average, it turns out three times a year. In the last century, such events occurred less frequently than once every three years, when the soil then subsided by half a centimeter a year. Now every year this ancient city sinks by twelve millimeters, and the rate of its sinking has noticeably increased in recent decades.
To the damage that water has long inflicted on Venice, the troubles of our time have joined. The industrial complex Potro-Marghera grew up just five kilometers from the Doge's Palace. Even in calm weather, sulfurous fumes from its factories reach the city. The resulting acrid fog contributes to the erosion of historical buildings, corrodes bronze statues, and penetrates into museums.
Recent studies have shown that the analysis of water in the famous Venetian canals has changed qualitatively. Motor boats, which have almost completely replaced romantic gondolas, cover the surface of the canals with oil spills. The latest non-biodegradable detergents spoil the marble foundations.
The world knows the famous equestrian quadriga, the story of which captures like an adventure novel. Scientists are still arguing about its authorship and origin, but one thing is indisputable - this four has a dashing past. But air pollution turned out to be the sculpture's worst enemy. Legs eaten by poisonous smoke are about to refuse to hold the horses.
On the Grand Canal stands the Church of Santa Maria della Salute. It was erected in 1630 to commemorate the end of the plague. There is a plaque on the facade of the church. "Caution!". Nearby, some joker wrote: "Angels are falling." And indeed, molded figures of cherubs and seraphim are falling from the facades of the church. A UNESCO report in the 1960s stated that the condition of four hundred palaces, 22 monasteries and 86 churches is alarming. The main cause of the disaster is the violation of the water and atmospheric regimes. The ancestors of modern Venetians in the strictest way monitored the safety of the lagoon level and subsoil waters. In 1501 (under Doge Agostino Barbarigo), the Council of Ten decreed: anyone who dares “to damage the public dam in one way or another, to lay a pipe underground to divert water, as well as deepen or widen the canals … the right hand will be cut off,They will tear out his left eye and confiscate all his property. " How many monopolies would go bankrupt, how many crooked and armless ones would appear, if this decree were applied in all its severity to those responsible for the present disastrous state of Venice!
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Chemical, oil refineries and other enterprises were built in the immediate vicinity of Venice only in the mercenary interests associated with the presence of the port. As a result, tens of thousands of cubic meters of water are pumped out daily in Porto Marghera for industrial needs. But besides this, there are about 30,000 artesian wells in Venice. Naturally, underground voids are created and the soil settles.
Yes, the old buildings are beautiful, but they are no longer suitable for normal human life. Fifteen thousand apartments located on the first floors are constantly flooded with water, they are deprived of heating and bathrooms. The tragedy of Venice is not only the destruction of marble and bronze, it is also a great human drama. In 1951, about two hundred thousand people lived within the boundaries of island Venice, after twenty years there were almost half of them.
Of course, something is being done to save this unique city. But this salvation is often viewed simply as a technical undertaking, and all plans boil down to a kind of "mummification" of Venice, to turning it into a more preserved, but just as deserted city as the famous Pompeii.
HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS. N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev