Venice may build glass wall to protect St Mark’s Basilica from floods

Posted on 28 January 2020

Officials in Venice have proposed a plan to build a 1.2m-glass wall around the historic St Mark’s Basilica to protect it and the crypt beneath the church from future flooding.

The city has been increasingly struggling with flooding and in November 2019 Venice experienced severe floods which ‘entered the crypt, damaged mosaics and exposed the artwork and the building itself to saltwater corrosion’, according to Fox News.

Saint Mark’s Basilica has been flooded six times in its existence and four of those floods have occurred in the last 20 years, according to Reuters. At the time of the November 2019 flood Venice Archbishop Francesco Moraglia said, ‘I have never seen anything like it. Venice is a wounded city, but it can’t keep on being wounded every year in the same way.’

The flood caused an estimated €5 million (about R80-million) and the 923-year-old basilica with its 8,000m2 mosaics was closed for about a week for a clean-up operation.

Also read: Venice hit by worst flood in 50 years

It’s been proposed that the glass walls will replace the iron railings which already exists, two metres from the Basilica’s walls, and would run around its perimeter of about 150 metres.

‘The barrier is essential and feasible and we aim to get in place by November when we fear that high water will return,’ said official Pierpaolo Campostrin, according to The Times of London.

It’s expected that the project will cost about €3.5-million (R56-million).

In addition to the glass walls, the city also plans to implement its project MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) in 2021, which features mobile gates meant to protect the city and lagoon from extreme tides.  This plan has been in the pipeline for some time but cost overruns and charges of corruption have hindered its progress.

The tweet below shows the water in Venice during the 2019 flood.

Image credit: Unsplash






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