Venice islands: Chioggia

Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 25 km south of Venice (50 km by road); causeways connect it to the mainland and to its frazione of Sottomarina. The population of the municipality is c. 51,000, with the town proper accounting for about half of that and Sottomarina for most of the rest.

History

Chioggia and Sottomarina were not prominent in Antiquity, although they are first mentioned in Pliny (NH III.xvi.121) as the fossa Clodia. Local legend attributes this name to its founding by a Clodius, but the antiquity of this belief is not known.

The most ancient documents naming Chioggia dates from the 6th century AD, when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. Chioggia was destroyed by the King Pippin of Italy in the 9th century, but rebuilt around a new industry based on salt pans. In the Middle Ages, Chioggia proper was known as Clugia major, whereas Clugia minor was a sand bar about 600 m further into the Adriatic. A free commune and an episcopal see from 1110, it had later an important role in the so-called War of Chioggia between Genoa and Venice, being conquered by Genoa in 1378 and finally by Venice in June 1380. Although the town remained largely autonomous, it was always thereafter subordinate to Venice.

Main sights

Chioggia is a miniature version of Venice, with a few canals, chief among them the Canale Vena, and the characteristic narrow streets known as calli. Chioggia has several medieval churches, much reworked in the period of its greatest prosperity in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The church of S. Maria, founded in the eleventh century, became a cathedral in 1110, then was rebuilt from 1623 by Baldassare Longhena.

The church of St. Andrew (18th century) has a bell tower from the 11th-12th centuries, provided with the most ancient tower watch in the world. The interior has a Crucifixion by Palma the Elder.

Culture

Until the 19th century, women in Chioggia wore an outfit based on an apron which could be raised to serve as a veil. Chioggia is also known for lacemaking; like Pellestrina, but unlike Burano, this lace is made using bobbins.

Chioggia served Carlo Goldoni as the setting of his play Le baruffe chiozzotte, one of the classics of Italian literature: a baruffa was a loud brawl, and chiozzotto (today more frequently chioggiotto) is the adjective meaning "from Chioggia". Goldoni took his setting seriously: the play is replete with lacemaking, fishermen, and other local color.

Economy

Fishing is historically the livelihood of the port, and remains a significant economic sector. Other important modern industries include textiles, brick-making and steel; and Sottomarina, with 60 hotels and 17 campgrounds, is almost entirely given over to seafront tourism.

 

Official website of Chioggia: www.chioggia.org

 

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License .

It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Procuratie"