Venice 421 – The elusive history of the origins of Venice and her beguiling myths

The power and wealth accrued over the centuries in Venice led to the creation of compelling myths and legends about her origins, linking politics and religion into a clever narration glorifying the city, from the alleged foundation of the Church of San Giacometto at Rialto in 421, to the link between Saint Mark and the city. The year 421, oh really? At the time, nobody knew it. The dating system in use today was devised by a monk in the 6th century. While the calendar was being sorted, hordes of Goths, who had happily settled on the shores of the Black Sea, were turfed out by fiery Huns and so raided Italy, prompting the locals to flee to the islands of the Venetian Lagoon. Here, new settlements were founded, including one that later became the city of Venice. In order to survive in the Lagoon, people devised ingenious ways to find sources of livelihood based on river and marine navigation and became merchants. The political and economic elite who had fled from the mainland, defied their adverse fate, forged new political institutions and became the Venetian patricians. If Venice rose economically and politically in the 9th century and declined in the 19th, her fortunes began subsequently to rise again. 2021 marked 1600 years since the legendary birth of Venice; a swift overview peeks at what happened in the Serenissima and worldwide at every centenary since 421.