Venice was built on a foundation of about 10,000,000 underwater wooden logs or 8 to 10 tree logs per sq meter. Trunks function as roots. 1200 years later, those same trunks still support almost all of central Venice. Before starting to build the palazzi that line the canals, the Venetians drove wooden piles into the ground to make it more solid. As we can read in the Atlante storico della Serenessima,”The foundations of all of the buildings are made of very strong oak piles, which last eternally under water… These are driven firmly into the ground in dense groups, then blocked with large crosspieces and the space between them is filled with fragments of stone and cement, which solidify them into firm, stable foundations.
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