Sewage system in Venice. What is hidden at the bottom of the Venetian canals. Typical solutions are not suitable

October 2012

This post contains everything you wanted, but were afraid to find out about sewerage in beautiful Venice :) Why is St. Mark's Square flooded in the title photo? Yes, because high water and the drainage system in the sinking beauty are directly connected.

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Where do you think the contents of antique Venetian chamber pots go? Don’t you think so? :) That’s right - I also didn’t ask myself this question until September 26 of this year.

However, on this fateful day, the entry “And yet she is sinking” (about sinking Venice, if anyone is interested) appeared in my journal. The post unexpectedly received a lot of comments. Among them was this: “Does the author of the post know that in Venice, like many centuries ago, there is still no sewage system at all, and its role is played by canals and sea currents, and all, excuse me, the waste of the Venetians is joyfully carried away into the Adriatic Sea during the ebb and flow of the tides, which completely suits the cheerful Venetians. Against this background, the tenderness at the sight of children frolicking in this very water is, to put it mildly, incomprehensible."

With great aplomb, I answered that the author knew everything... but I did this only after I had scoured the entire Internet in search of a worthy refutation. That is, how is it possible, there is no sewerage system, I thought, - after all, I have seen repair work in the canals more than once (they are closed for this time, the water is completely drained, and they are tinkering there without hindrance). There are many pipes laid at the bottom of the canals - one of them must be a sewer pipe - I had almost no doubt about this.

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Imagine my surprise when, from the mass of information about plans to improve the sewer system, new knowledge crystallized - Venice really uses the same method as 500 years ago. The method, by the way, is quite effective: all Venetian palazzos have so-called septic tanks - in other words, settling tanks, at the bottom of which accumulates... uh... well, in general, a natural product :) And everything that is lighter than this waste actually ends up in the canal through holes in the wall (by the way, in Venice, vacuum cleaner boats work very effectively:).

Twice a day the tide ebbs and flows in the Venetian Lagoon, so all the water in the canals is constantly cleared, or rather replaced by new clean water. Therefore, stories about the terrible smell of Venice are greatly exaggerated. However, some amber is actually felt during strong low tides, which occur mainly at night. Then these sewer holes turn out to be above the water level and, accordingly, a smell appears, which in the literature has a veiled name ""eau du canal".

By the way, I laughed very hard when, in my research, I came across the blog of an Italian guy who “came in large numbers” to Venice (apparently, a student). Soon after moving, he also had a question: is there even a sewer system in Venice (I translate literally, a shit pipeline)? He just formulated it with youthful spontaneity: “Does all of Venice really constantly poop in the canal?” :) The guy decided to check this empirically: he pulled the cistern cord, rushed headlong to the window and saw that water had flowed out of the hole in the wall, but not Moreover:) The guy cheered up a little when he didn’t see any solid residues floating into the canal, but the experiment didn’t end there. Next, he poured dishwashing detergent into the toilet, drained the water and again ran to the window - foam flowed from the sewer hole exposed by the tide! Oh horror - the connection turned out to be direct and immediate!

As a very impressionable person, I immediately shared the terrible discovery with my husband, which caused him to have a fit of great joy. Well, come on, he laughed, but how do you think the sewage system in big cities works? Well, imagine - there are pipes, they lead to the same settling tanks, but somewhat larger and somewhat more advanced, and then the water (purified, but not sterile) is still discharged into rivers, seas and other places from which we drink and in which we swim. And indeed, I remembered my recent walk not far from the discharge of such water into our mountain stream - the smell of detergents is still very noticeable!

At first I was upset, and then I remembered Vladimir Voinovich and his Ivan Chonkin :)

By the way, all this only applies to the historical center of Venice; newer peripheral areas are connected to the city sewerage system. The islands seem to be connected too.

As illustrations, I took photographs of winter, autumn and spring floods in a completely random order. The post was written specifically in connection with floods, so I don’t have any other pictures :)

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A short film about the Venice canals.

Original taken from lake_chad in post

My seminar about the journey of Marco Polo at the forum with Yulia Rempel began just three days ago, and it’s simply amazing what the participants come up with - they organize gondola races in the bathroom, build time machines and make Venetian shoes from old slippers and firewood!
And Osya became interested in how houses are built in Venice, and we started reading about it. Why are they not destroyed by constant water and how does their foundation hold up?

First, Osya learned that all Venetian houses are on stilts. The soil in Venice is too loose to build foundations directly on, so the foundations had to be strengthened first! To do this, tree trunks were driven into the ground - larch, alder, oak.

In sea salt water, wood becomes very strong, like iron. When the piles were specially examined in 1827, they found that the piles from the larch forest had “petrified” and became so hard that neither an ax nor a saw could take them.
The piles were treated with special resins and driven to a depth until they reached solid soil.
And imagine, when they built the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, more than a million piles were driven into the ground, each of which was 4 meters long. It took 2 years and 2 months.

And at the same time we saw how the canals are cleaned. First they build wooden barriers, then they release the water. Well, then they remove all the garbage that has accumulated at the bottom of the canal.

Here's an even more colorful photo. Canal cleaning in 1956

At the same time, when the water is drained, you can inspect the foundation and restore those places that were destroyed by sea water. First, the holes are sealed, and then the seams are filled with a special mixture! What you don't know :)

Venice is perhaps one of the most romantic cities in the world. Thousands of lovers dream of visiting it, seeing with their own eyes the delightful streets lying below sea level. And if you are lucky enough to come here one day, among other questions you may probably have the following question: “How is the sewer system organized in Venice?”

The truth about smells

In fact, this is not an idle question at all. Looking at the crowds of tourists who fill the embankments and cafes, plunging into the bustle of a city where there are no streets in the usual sense of the word, you can’t help but wonder: where does the waste of all these people go? After all, you can’t lay sewer pipes under water.

Your interest can also be fueled by the idle fictions that fill the Internet. They say that the whole of Venice smells bad because it never had a sewer system and the contents of the toilets are thrown directly into the canals.

However, you will see the truth about smells for yourself by walking along the embankments of this city, walking along the romantic canals in the evenings. You will feel the characteristic smell of the sea: fresh, slightly salty, smelling of algae and fish. But there will be no unpleasant odor, and there will be no feces floating on the surface of the water. By the way, the canals here are quite clean, there are fish in them, and even boys swim.

So, is there a sewer system in Venice, and how does it work?

Sewerage, but special

Of course, there is a sewer system in the city, and it is well thought out. But this engineering system is organized in the “city of love” in a completely different way than we are used to.

Let's start with the fact that Venice is a conglomerate of one and a half hundred islands closely located in the Adriatic Sea. They are separated from each other by many ducts, as well as artificial canals. Channels, by the way, are also called canals here, although this is incorrect from a hydrological point of view.

If you look at an individual Venetian house, its sewage system can be represented as follows:

Toilet and sewer pipes in each apartment. This is all familiar to us.
A special tank under each house is the so-called septic tank.
A hydraulic valve that connects septic tanks to special small channels. These canals were built specifically for transporting sewage waste.
A special filter and sedimentation tank at the outlet of the channel.

It is clear that the primary treatment of fecal waste occurs in septic tanks. This is where solid fractions accumulate, which are pumped out from time to time by special vacuum boats. Although dirty, water that has already undergone rough cleaning comes out through the hydraulic valve.

After additional settling at the very end of a special channel, the water flows into the Grand Canal - the largest in Venice. In fact, as already mentioned, it is a natural channel between two large islands.

And this is where nature itself comes into play! The fact is that the lagoon on which Venice stands experiences sea ebbs and flows. Twice a day, at any time of the year, the water partially leaves the lagoon into the open sea through three natural straits. They are small, with a sandy bottom, and also work as natural filters.

After a while, the water returns along with the tidal wave. This natural mechanism does not know failures or breakdowns. Along with it, there is a constant purification of the water: part of it, slightly polluted, moves away from the city, partially depositing its suspensions on the sandy bottom, and it is replaced by a new, clean one from the Adriatic.

This “breath of nature” resembles our breathing. After all, we also continuously exhale carbon dioxide that we don’t need, replenishing our lungs with new oxygen.

Someone might argue that they have been to Venice and seen human feces floating in a canal. Yes, it happens! But, to be honest, don’t similar things happen in our coastal cities? The human factor, as we know, is omnipresent, and even in the city of love and carnivals there are careless sewer operators, and there are failures in the work of utility workers.

However, this is another story and other questions. They are not relevant to the question of how the sewer system works in Venice.

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Some people think it's just a frivolous, romantic town. But they are very mistaken: once you get to know old lady Venice better, she will slowly begin to take off her carnival mask, revealing dark secrets.

website decided to show Venice as the Venetians know it, and not as tourists.

Venice smells bad. Or not?

There is no sewerage system in Venice; they say there are no plumbers. All waste is washed directly into the canals. But they are laid in such a way that the tides carry wastewater into the sea, so the water in the canals is always clean. But during strong low tides, the smell may indeed appear.
In general, tourists' opinions about the aroma of Venice are divided polarly: some only smelled freshness, while others smelled stinking water. To join the first ones, we recommend going to Venice in winter.

Around the 17th century, people came up with the idea of wearing masks to protect their personal space, since the town was small. They could have been worn by lovers who did not want publicity, or by a person buying medicine for a shameful illness.

But then people realized that by covering their faces (and some masks even changed their voice), they could do dark things: go to brothels, gamble, dress frivolously. Complete decadence began in Venice.

Therefore, it was decided to wear masks only during certain months. Over time, this evolved into the Venice Carnival.

Strange mask for women

At the same time, in Venice there was a mask for women, when you look at it you won’t immediately understand how it stayed on your face. She was called “moretta,” but sometimes she was called “dumb servant” or “husband’s delight.” You probably already guessed that there was a special pin inside the mask that was inserted into the mouth, depriving the woman of the ability to speak. This was considered very mysterious.

The canals are probably former streets

Many people think that Venice is just a city with many canals. In fact, it is an island city (if you do not take into account the mainland). Most likely, Venice owes its strange location to the fact that it was simply flooded at one time. Look at the Grand Canal - it looks like a flooded avenue.

By the way, Venice is shaped like a fish, and this fish consists of 118 islands.

How people are buried in Venice

The dead are taken by boat to the gloomy cemetery island of San Michele. Every 7–10 years, the remains are exhumed and placed in a columbarium (urn storage). This frees up space on the island for the new dead.

Many people have noticed that Venice is somehow not very similar to the rest of Italy. And they are right - for many hundreds of years (from the end of the 7th century to 1797) Venice was a separate state - the Venetian Republic. And she was quite large and powerful.

But in the end it suffered a decline - after the Napoleonic Wars, the republic joined the Austrian Empire, and even later entered the kingdom of Italy. So you shouldn’t order pizza or spaghetti in Venice; it’s better to try something from Venetian cuisine.

Venice has a double

Look carefully at these photos, one of them is not Venice. Venice is dying, or maybe already dead

No, the point is not that it is slowly sinking under water, they say it is generally an attraction for tourists.

In 2009, activists held a funeral for Venice: a boat procession carrying a coffin with a Venetian flag sailed along the Grand Canal towards the administration. With this they wanted to draw attention to the fact that the city's population is falling at a catastrophic rate, suffocating from tourists. Only 55 thousand native Venetians remained in the island part of Venice. And they say that in a couple of decades the city will become a ghost. There is even a joke here: the main inhabitants of Venice are tourists.

Still, come to Venice! She is like a portal to another era, like a bittersweet mixture. This is one of the most unusual and beautiful cities on Earth, which the 20th century seemed to bypass.

Where do you think the contents of antique Venetian chamber pots go? Don’t you think so? :) That’s right - I also didn’t ask myself this question until September 26 of this year.

By the way, I laughed very hard when, in my research, I came across the blog of an Italian guy who “came in large numbers” to Venice (apparently, a student). Soon after moving, he also had a question: is there even a sewer system in Venice? He just formulated it with youthful spontaneity: “Does all of Venice really constantly poop in the canal?” :) The guy decided to check this empirically: he pulled the cistern cord, rushed headlong to the window and saw that water had flowed out of the hole in the wall, but not Moreover:) The guy cheered up a little when he didn’t see any solid residues floating into the canal, but the experiment didn’t end there. Next, he poured dishwashing detergent into the toilet, drained the water and again ran to the window - foam flowed from the sewer hole exposed by the tide! Oh horror - the connection turned out to be direct and immediate!

At first I was upset, and then I remembered Vladimir Voinovich and his Ivan Chonkin :)

By the way, all this only applies to the historical center of Venice; newer peripheral areas are connected to the city sewerage system. The islands seem to be connected too.

So everything is fine, gentlemen tourists! And floods are, perhaps, even a blessing, because they clean beautiful Venice better than any sewer truck. I read an interview with one of the former Venetian mayors about the protective structures being built. So the mayor there expressed a timid fear that these structures, by stopping water exchange in the canals, would cause another problem - stagnation of water and, accordingly, its pollution. Eh, eternal dualism :)

The moral of this fragrant fable is simple: I still love Venice, I will go there as often as before. But! I will splash around in high water on San Marco exclusively in high rubber boots - out of harm's way :)