The Islands of Venice

The city of Venice is known for its islands and canals, having been built on small patches of marshland. The entire 550 sq. km lagoon holds 167 islands, including 127 inner city islands, along with 8 major islands and 32 minor islands.

The islands began as areas of raised land, which developed over the course of hundreds of years due to the curves of canals within the lagoon. Satellite images of the far northern and southern ends of the lagoon help show how these canals exist regardless of urban developments

Considering the interconnected relationship of canals and islands, it's difficult to discuss one without the other. For more information on canals, please view the  Canals StoryMap here. 

A major lagoon island is a large island or island cluster that contains man-made structures.

There are 8 main major lagoon islands: The 6 lagoon islands of Murano, Sant’Erasmo, Vignole, Burano, Mazzorbo, Torcello, and the two lidi: Lido di Venezia and Pellestrina. A lido is a long, narrow, natural barrier island that separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea

A Minor Lagoon Island is defined as any small landmass entirely surrounded by water, with human artifacts. These islands can be either inhabited or uninhabited and belong to one of four categories based on their original use: batterie, ottagoni, ospedali, and convents/monasteries.

There are a total of 32 minor islands spread across the Venetian Lagoon.

Historic city center of Venice is made up of 127 islands, loosely divided into 6 sestieri, or boroughs, Cannaregio, Castello, Dorsoduro, San Marco, San Polo, and Santa Croce

Constantly Changing

The geography of Venice's islands has changed greatly over time. The number of islands grew steadily in its early years, but somewhat counterintuitively began to decrease as well. This is due to Rii Terà (filled-in/covered canals). Rii Terà are created for two main reasons: to create more pedestrian walkways and to fill in stagnant canals. Each time a canal is filled in, it combines two or more existing islands, in turn decreasing the total number of islands in the historic city. Conversely, new canals can be excavated to increase access to areas via water. Both of these actions make the total number of islands an ever-changing amount.

Learn more about  Rii Terà here 

This map depicts the most recently created Rii Terà (red) and the most recently excavated canal (green)

The following application allows you to view the evolution of the inner city islands of Venice, displaying how the population of the islands grew over the past millennium. Note the number of islands and canals and how they have changed over the centuries

The Venice Project Center (VPC) has been collecting data on islands since its early days, creating and updating databases, maps, and websites.

Starting in 1992, the VPC delineated the boundaries of the islands on computer (GIS), assigning each island a NUMBER based on pre-existing coding and a 4-letter CODE based on the main points of interest on the island.

These island codes defined by the VPC have become the municipal standard

In 2015, a VPC project group collected data on all of the islands of the lagoon and used them to create an online interactive map application, the Isolario Interattivo. The website provided a clear accessible way to view information on the islands, including their name, number, code, accessibility, usage, and other valuable information.

Due to outdated technology, the Isolario Interrativo is no longer in a functioning state. However, the data collected still exists in VPC repositories and drives. Thus, an alternate reconstruction of the application was created within the ArcGIS software and can be viewed below.

The islands are grouped by categories (Major, Minor and Inner City), and each individual island can be clicked on to access more detailed information.

For more information on Venice's most important aspects please visit the other StoryMaps created by the Venice Project Center below. Also, visit the Venice Project Center and our team's websites for more detailed information covering the VPC efforts in preserving and improving life in Venice.