Venetian merchant-explorers fanned out across Asia and Africa, bringing ever more wealth to the city, as well as making it one of the cultural centers of Europe. Settled initially by Roman refugees from German and Hun invasions, in 726 AD the citizens of the city rose in rebellion against Byzantine rule, declared themselves a free republic, and elected the first of the 117 doges that would administer the city-state.įrom the 9th through the 12th centuries Venice developed into a naval and commercial power that dominated the Mediterranean trade routes from the Levant and Orient, from Morocco and Spain.
La serenissima ('the most serene' or 'sublime') Republic of Venice was built on islands in a lagoon of the Adriatic Sea and became the greatest seaport of medieval and Renaissance Europe, the continent's commercial and cultural link with the East.
