Harbour, Port sights in Venice
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Arsenale
Founded in 1104, the Arsenale soon became the greatest medieval shipyard in Europe, home to 300 shipping companies employing up to 16,000 people, and capable of turning out a new galley in a day. Venice’s navy remained unbeatable for centuries, but now arty types invade the shipyards during Venice’s Art and Architecture Biennales. At its peak, the Arsenale covered 46 hectares and must have made an enormous impression, with its boiling black pitch, metalworking and timber-cutting. Dante used it as a model scene for hell in his Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy; Canto XXI, lines 7 to 21). At the core was the Arsenale Vecchio (Old Arsenal), which had a storage area for the
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