Streets and Canals in Venice

There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world, that you leave at once all accustomed habits and everyday sights to enter an enchanted garden…..
Mary Shelley

Our latest online exhibition is taken from a volume published by Ferdinando Ongania in 1893 who was inspired to record the architecture of his beloved city for the ‘studious art loving public’.

Browse the images and meander the narrow streets and waterways of a less well-known side of Venice. Although you will see images of gondolas they are of a time when unlike today they normally contained an intimate “felze”, a small cabin on the deck.

There is also an image of the Regata Storia where thousands of people line the streets, gather on bridges and watch from every possible vantage point.  This centuries old event is still as popular today as when this photograph was taken.

We also witness women pulling water from the well to fill the tub for the daily washing while nearby men with pipes firmly clenched between teeth can be seen with tools of their trade.

Explore the beautiful Street and Canals in Venice exhibition on Capital Collections.