To stop their heavy stone buildings from sinking into the mud, the people of Venice drove millions of wooden poles deep into the ground. It's like the city is standing on a giant, hidden forest!
Venice is famous for its beautiful canals, but what is even more amazing is what lies beneath the water. The entire city is sitting on millions of wooden piles that have been there for over 1,000 years.
When the first people moved to the Venice lagoon to escape invaders, they found only soft mud and sand. You can't build heavy stone palaces on mud! To solve this, builders drove sharpened wooden logs (mostly Larch and Oak) deep into the ground until they hit a harder layer of clay.
For example, the famous Santa Maria della Salute church is supported by over 1,106,657 wooden piles, each about 4 meters long.
Usually, wood rots when it gets wet. But the wood under Venice stays strong for two reasons:
To get all this wood, the Venetians had to cut down entire forests in Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. They transported the logs by water and hammered them into the lagoon. So, when you walk through the streets of Venice, you are actually walking on top of a massive, upside-down, underwater forest.
Venice is an engineering miracle. Millions of wooden stakes form a solid foundation in the mud, preserved by the lack of oxygen and the salty water. Without this "hidden forest," the beautiful city would have sunk into the sea centuries ago.
