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I can start saying that Venice is the city from where you reach Costantinople
We can speak of a system named Venice
They were mixed relationships, often hostile
but commercially profitable for both the parties
We know that for many centuries the route Costantinople-Venice
has been the economic axis of development of the whole Mediterranean
as far as of the whole world economy
Even in wartimes they keep on trading;
during the Cyprus war there are about 70 Ottoman merchants working in Venice
The relationship between the Venetians and the Ottoman Empire
was like a relationship between two merchants
Wherever there was a winged lion, there was Venice.
That's why Mediterranean basin is full of lions
The weapons are Venetian, the design is Venetian, the foundry is English
The Venetians had brought the violin.
Our traditional instruments are the violin and the lute
Scratch out the Venetian, you will find the Turk;
that is scratch out Venice, you will find the Orient
The Venetians have always been traveling in the Mediterranean Sea.
The first news we have of the Venetians trading with the Muslim world are from 750 AD.
There is a real commercial route, a commercial "network"
that links all these cities and the small Venetian communities,
which sometimes are communities that were born and declined in few decades
They were adventurers, there were two families,
the head of which were the brothers Geremia and Andrea Ghisi,
who have occupied the neighboring island, Tinos and Mykonos,
and have built two castles, on the bases of pre-existing Byzantine castles.
There are the ruins of the castle and of the medieval city
which has been blown up by the Turks
one year after the capture of the city and the island
At the same time, which is the role of Venice in the Crusades?
It was to supply the ships to board the Crusaders through the sea.
If the one that supplies the ships is not paid,
roughly he can conduct the ships where he likes
I'm Gilormu Muniglia, I live in Ginevra, I'm the historian of the clan of the Giustinianis.
The Muniglias, my family, have established this clan in 1362,
after they've got the control with the arms of the island of Chios in 1346.
In fact, this is the born of a clan,
it is the first model of Joint-stock company of the modern times.
In 1362, all the families arrived on 29 gales,
have decided to abandon their own family names
and to get all together the name of the society.
They 've got this name from the Roman Emperor Giustiniano;
they called themselves as heirs of the Emperor Giustiniano.
This is a famous name, Giustiniani,
it is also the name of the palace of the Italian Senato,
also the name of the palace of Massoneria in Cagliari
This is the temptation of the Orient seen as an Elsewhere
that offers to the individual some opportunities of life
which are unimaginable in the West, so in Venice
The Venetians were used to advance their careers in Istanbul.
One of them for example, Andrea Gritti has lived in Istanbul for almost 20 years.
After that he came back to Venice and was elected Doge of Venice,
that was for sure the top of his career
Before he was a merchant in Costantinople, he lived there with a woman
who was perhaps Greek, caught by the Turks, or she herself was Turkish.
They had a baby, Alvise Gritti, who will never go back to Venice
because he went-getting in Costantinople
The bailo of Costantinople had a connection role
between Venice and overseas territories;
he keeps on living in Costantinople even before its downfall;
he had commercial functions through his relationships with the consuls
working in the biggest market places to assure the big commerce to Venice.
After the fall of Costantinople the bailo became the ambassador
of the Serenissima in the Ottoman Empire
The Venetian bailo was used to live first in a house
that once was of the community of Ancona received from the Sultan;
then in 500s he has moved to the Pera Hills
in that house that now hosts the Italian Consulate and the Italian ambassador
The relationship between Venice and Istanbul-Costantinople is extraordinary
first of all because of its temporal continuity, ten centuries.
We can see it from the succession of the bailo, from the history itself.
Costantinople becomes accustomed to Venice
At the beginning Venice developed thanks to its autonomy in the Byzantine area.
The Byzantine esarca in Ravenna should have had to keep Venice under control;
effectively, due to difficult geographical connections, due to the Longobards and so on,
this control has never occurred.
The Venetian autonomy unfolds in term of supremacy;
after 1000AD there will be agreements between Venice and Byzantium
in which Venice is one of the contracting parties.
This is an implicit identification of the Venetian State.
Now we are right in the centre of the castle that was built by the Venetians.
Before the existence of this Venetian castle, there was a Byzantine castle;
when the Venetians came here they've found only ruins and they've used its stones
to build the towers and their houses. It was like a small citadel.
This church became famous by virtue of this Byzantine icon.
It represents the 2m high full figured ***
and it seems it is more than 1000 years old.
It is double: the ***, and behind Saint John the Precursor
The Republic of Venice has found the way to organize
its business with the Byzantine world
while it still was dominating Crete and many other Byzantine islands.
Venice has always taken in consideration local traditions
belonging to Byzantium and the Greek world
Corfu is located in a very strategic point in the Adriatic Sea,
there where is the connection to the Ionian Sea.
It has all along be regarded as a very important base
since ancient times, during the Byzantine period.
But also in that period in which the Venetians have dominated
- or better have controlled - the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
This base was always considered the most important of the Ionian Sea,
Corfù was the headquarter for the commander Generale da Mar
Saint Spiridione, the Patron Saint of Corfu,
was episcope at Ciprus in the 4th century
and took part to the 1st Ecumenic council in Nicea
In the XV century before the fall of Costantinople his remains were moved
by the Kalochereti from Costantinople to Corfu.
From then on this Saint has always been honored in this island.
Not only by the Corfiotes and by the Orthodoxes,
but also by the Venetians themselves
For example what happened in 1716 during the last siege of Corfu from the Turks
is considered a miracle of the Saint:
besides considering the importance of Schulenburg's strategy
to protect the island, people has found quite weird what has happened
during that siege, as about 30.000 Turks have besieged the city,
and only 2.000 soldiers have defended it and have leaded it to safety.
For that reason too the Superintendent Andrea Pisani
has donated to the church 2 big hanging silver lamps oil
decorated with the lion of Saint Mark
consecrating them to the Saint in memory of that victory
This Venice, having continuos commercial relationships with Byzantium,
Istanbul and so on, is even the terminal both from
and to the Saint Sepulchre
Here in front there's the town of Mylopotamos, we're going into it now.
We're going to the old part of the town to see the fortress with the lion
Greece was with Byzantium, before; but to save themselves from the Turks,
the Greeks went with the Venetians, this was Venetian territory,
it was Venetian Republic
Then all the inhabitants of the island had the Venetian citizenship.
They've found this building was completed in 1515;
the inhabitants around were used to live inside the fortress
to defend themselves against the pirates.
There are some old women who scare the children saying
"the pirates form Barbaria and Tunisi are coming to get you!"
Granbousa ( 40 miles) had another very strong Venetian fortress;
nobody could enter that castle of Grambusa.
Even there there is a crest of our family:
it's very heavy and big and thrown on the ground
And they say this is a talking family crest.
Because there's a bridge, ponte -"Da Ponte".
Our family was called Da Ponte because they've built the bridges of Venice
You can see, that's all ruins, all ruins, all abandoned, all wrecked;
and nobody ever thinks to take care of it...
even only out of curiosity, or for tourism..
it's all abandoned..it does not matter...
The relationships between Venice and Costantinople,
the Byzantine Empire have always been difficult.
The 4th Crusade was a tragedy for the Byzantine world;
nevertheless the Greeks operated as minor partners
in commercial exchanges with Venice.
So this hostility was always combined with economic profit and trades
Monemvasia takes the name from the two words "only" and "passage",
that means the only passage: the single passage of Monemvasia.
Many conquerors passed through Monemvasia,
among which Byzantine, Frankish, Venetians and Ottomans.
I tell you something about the Malvasia vine,
that you know as Malvasìa,
that was born here around Monemvasia lands.
In 1450, during the first Venetian occupation,
the Venetians have found this vine so sweet and so tasty,
and very refined, so they not only begun to commerce it,
but they also took the grapevines and planted them.
Today you can find them quite everywhere, in 32 different places in Italy.
At that time the Malvàsia was very well-known as a vine:
referring to high quality vine everywhere,
in the whole Europe you could hear about Malvàsia.
At the beginning it was called Monemvasia,
in Italy was Malvasia, in France it was Malvoisie.
It's arrived to England too, where it was known as Malmsey
There is this dimension of expansive spaces
in this world that on the other hand is seen as unfaithful, horrible;
but in Venice we cannot find ever the idea of a redeemer crusade
Venice at a certain point conquers Athens: why?
Because is one of the many wars against the Turks;
in 1684 the Serenissima declares war
to the Ottoman Empire to conquer the Peloponnesus.
The commander, the Capitano Generale da Mar
of this big Venetian mission is Francesco Morosini.
Actually from a military point of view Athens is a small and irrelevant detail,
without any strategic relevance.
It's been conquered only because it has name.
It was like a marketing operation.
The Turks have collected in the most solid building
of the Acropolis the gunpowder and a big part of the civilians,
that building accidentally was just the Parthenon.
It's been bombarded for some days,
till they were able to hit the temple,
one of these bombs pierced the Parthenon.
This provoked a huge explosion
and the Parthenon has been blazing for two days.
The Parthenon had been kept almost intact
apart from a fire in the 3rd century AD;
almost intact from the times of Pericle, when it had been built.
For six centuries Greek temple, for six centuries Christian Cathedral,
for two and half centuries a mosque.
Today, from the end of the 7th century on, a ruin.
Here all these four lions date back to 6th and 4th century BC.
Three of them, that is the lion called "the lion of Piraeus";
another lion that comes from Athens;
the small one overthere that is not a lion, but a dog;
they are all connectable to the venture of Francesco Morosini
in Athens at the end of '600
This is a "mortar", the Venetian name is "bombarda".
Its shot is parabolic: it's used generally outside
to shoot the grenades in parabolic way directly inside the fortress.
The aim is to destroy as much as possible
by staying out of a fortress in a secure position.
This bombarda has a particular story
because it represents the first order that the Venetian Proveditor
was able to reforge in Sussex, England.
The weapons are Venetian, the design is Venetian, the foundry is English.
It's almost absolute certain that they took part to the battle of S. Maura
which was occupied by the Turks.
The Venetians have released the fortress with these weapons themselves.
Then they have been moved here
What is singular is that in fact an interdependence was created,
so that one party would have lived worse without the other.
This untill the event of the great breaks period in '600 with the Crete war.
That was really a great war that has bleeded the Republic white,
not only from an economic point of view, but also from a physical one.
More than a quarter of the patricians of the Maggior Consiglio
has died in that war
Now we are inside Villa Rotonda, just in its center.
This villa was built during the end of the Venetian domination.
They weren't able to finish it.
Here above there should have been a cupola,
you can see overthrew where the columns should have been built
During the centuries the Venetian-Turkish relationships
have been marked by a commercial continuity,
that was interrupted by wars, but not quite right
Many things have remained: there is Villa Trevisan,
there is Kissamos, the old name was Castelli.
It had its name from Castelli, the Venetian castle.
Then the port of Canea. They 've left us a lot of beautiful things...
but as you can see, here everything is collapsing
The city of Rethymnon is an important city in Crete,
thanks to its architectural heritage since the 13rd century,
when the Venetians have arrived in Crete.
The Venetian period for Crete and Rethymnon goes from 1211 to 1646.
For sure the houses and the other buildings left today
have not only the Venetian taste, but also the Ottoman one.
After 1646, when the Venetians have left, the Turks have arrived
and occupied the same houses left by the Venetians, changing some details.
The important is that in this city,
that has been named national historical monument,
lot of Venetian elements have remained
The Ottoman Empire is really huge.
An Empire that wants to be multiethnic and multicultural, at least in 500s.
So when we speak about Turkish merchants we can refer to the Muslims
subject to the Ottoman Empire, or to the ones from the Balcans;
or we can also meet merchants coming from the centre of Anatolia,
from the Beipasahar area, from Ankara.
But as subjects of the Ottoman Empire we have also Greeks, Armenians,
which are not located into the Fondaco dei Turchi
as they're not Muslim, but which are subject to the Ottoman Empire.
Also Jewish ones.
So the Jewishs subject to the Ottoman Empire live in the Ghetto,
the Greeks live in the area of S.Giorgio dei Greci,
about the Armenians, there is the church of S. Croce degli Armeni in San Zulian
The Armenian reign of Cilicia was located in a transition point
towards the whole East, from the Middle to the Far East.
The same Marco Polo passed through it.
Essentially Cilicia was the junction point for the vessels
coming from the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
From there their crew was used to go ahead by land,
towards all the most important cities
and the main sites of the global commerce
They're "brothers enemies": enemies due to some wars
which have suspended just for a while a continuity in commercial activities,
that later every time has been resumed
Methoni has been populated since the prehistory,
but we have few and sketchy informations about its ancient and Byzantine times.
We know that during the first Venetian domination, from 1205 to 1500,
life in Methoni is good and there is economical prosperity.
But later, during the Ottoman occupation, it felt into decline.
The Turks killed the people of Methoni
taking gradually the city to downfall;
meantime, people from different areas of Peloponnese had settled in the city.
During the Ottoman presence in Methoni, this area has depopulated,
and the port gradually has been covered with earth.
In the following second Venetian Domination, from 1686 to 1815,
the way of living and the trend of Methoni has not changed, but its decline has continued.
Corone and Modone were called "the eyes of Serenissima" not by chance.
They were fundamental bases to defend the Venetian commercial routes
towards the East.
Together with many other ports and Arsenals,
they represented a constellation of bases
which have made Venice to be the great power
of the East Mediterranean Sea till the end of '600
Now we are in the Port of Gouvià, 5 Km far from the city of Corfu,
right where the base of the Venetian Fleet was situated.
Gouvià was considered a safe gulf,
so that at the end of the 18th century in its inlet they've built a big shipyard.
Together with big barracks, of which now only the entrance remains,
both they served the first necessities of the Venetian fleet.
The shipyard in Gouvià is the last one
built by the Serenissima in the Mediterranean area.
Today it's available for visits and it belongs to the net
of the Historical Arsenals in the Mediterranean Sea,
most of which are Venetian
The Venetians had brought the violin, I guess.
For this reason here in Kissamos we play our traditional music with violin and lute.
The Venetians were used to play them, bringing here the musicians from Italy,
and gradually we learned how to play the violin,
and it become a tradition in the music. Above all here in Kissamos
I remember when I was young all the people who lived here
were used to take here their goats, there were mules, horses.
We all were used to meet here...
there were the neighbours telling stories,
there where the grandparents, then the children.
The life was more calm, the people were used to stay more together..
you know, how it was once usual in the villages... like in Italy.
(english subtitles by Elena Chiusso)