Besides factors of tradition and environment, styles coming from other civilizations, Byzantium and the Middle East, have helped to form Venetian architecture. The crusades, trade with countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, merchants’ long journeys in the lands of central Asia, and even China, all enlarged and enriched traditional horizons and tastes.
th
Romanesque and Gothic art and architecture was brought to Venice during the 14
especially by religious orders. By that time, merchants and seamen, used to living in a place like lagoon with few natural resources, have never had a tendency to be extravagant, and certainly not with building materials, which were brought from a distance with great difficulty; the wood from the mountain forests, bricks from the mainland, and stones from the Istrian coast. Venice is an “artificial” city. Not only building methods, but also building materials and architectural
2 fragmentswerebroughtfromseveralabandonedmainlandcenters. Thissignalsanarrivalofa
completely land- based culture on the water-based setting.