An inverted forest of millions of trees has held Venice for more than 1600 years
It is an millenary engineering work. For more than 1,600 years, Venice remains firm thanks to a unique foundation system in the world. These are millions of wooden posts stuck with the tip down in the muddy background of the lagoon. This base, which looks like an inverted forest, is composed of aler, oak, aliso, pine, fir and elmo. Thanks to this millenary engineering work, the city was officially founded on March 25, 421. Taking advantage of the laws of physics, monumental buildings have been built on land that seemed unstable. Only Rialtos bridge rests on 14,000 piles, while the Basilica of San Marcos sits over 10,000 oaks. No one knows how many wooden posts there are in total under the entire city, but the Venetian foundations have more than 16 centuries fulfilling their function, unlike modern materials such as concrete or steel, which have a projected life of 50 years on average as according to Alexander Puzrin, professor of geomechanics and geosystem engineering at the Federal Polytechnic University of Zúric.
