THIS CHAPTER REPRESENTS preliminary research into a little recognized topic that is fundamental for the history of the city of Venice. During the nineteenth century Venice underwent changes that transformed it from a historic city to a tourist city. Commentators have always been interested in Venetian changes but have paid little or no attention to the process of revision of the medieval origins of the city by intellectuals and building experts. This century-long process involved and cut across all levels of Venetian society, to the extent that it is difficult to pinpoint without getting lost in prosopographies and isolated events. But the revision and recovery of the past left its mark on the city and rendered it the Venice we know today, characterized by ongoing changes. For the sake of brevity, I will only outline a few exemplary, though not exhaustive, guidelines for the interpretation of a larger phenomenon, to be discussed elsewhere.

A City under Construction

The events taking place in Venice in the long nineteenth century are diverse and complex. Urban and architectural changes are mostly known thanks to Giandomenico Romanelli's research. Unfortunately, we still do not have a full overview of all the cultural elements that would enable a full understanding of this period.

As with other Italian cities, Venice fell under successive political entities, from the Napoleonic through the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, and had to interact with all of them. Let us recall the key dates: the Austrians acquired Venice in 1797 and ruled until 1806; from then until 1814 Venice was under French rule; the city was then annexed to the Austrian Empire and remained part of it until 1866, with a small break in 1848–1849 with the Revolution led by Daniele Manin. Finally, in 1866, Venice became Italian. For this whole century Venice was under construction. The Napoleonic repression brought about a very significant reduction in and dispersal of monuments and works of art in the city. But this led to the need for constant works to rehabilitate and restore the city to a usable condition. Such restoration works were carried out on buildings considered most important from the perspective of cultural history, but also on private buildings on the personal initiative of some significant figures of the cultural life of that period.