Venice, the iconic city of canals, has stood for over 1,500 years—built not on concrete or steel, but on millions of wooden logs driven deep into the clay of the lagoon as early as 421 AD. Surprisingly, these foundations are made mostly of alder wood, known for its durability in wet conditions, with some oak used in key structures.
When submerged in the oxygen-poor, salty waters beneath the city, the wood didn’t rot—instead, it gradually fossilized, hardening over time into a stone-like foundation. St. Mark’s Bell Tower alone rests on about 100,000 of these logs, while the majestic Basilica della Salute required more than a million.
To create this hidden support system, medieval builders pounded the logs up to three meters into the seabed, placing them just half a meter apart to form a dense, underwater forest. Today, this submerged wooden skeleton lies about 1.6 meters below the water’s surface, still quietly bearing the weight of one of the most enchanting cities in the world—a lasting tribute to the ingenuity of ancient engineering.
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