Chioggia, Italy Summary

Once a Roman port, then in the eleventh and twelfth centuries a major producer of salt, Chioggia secured its place in the annals of Venetian history in 1379, when it became the scene of the most serious threat to Venice since Pepin’s invasion, as the Genoese, after copious shedding of blood on both sides, took possession of the town. Venice at this time had two outstanding admirals: the first, Vettor Pisani, was in prison on a charge of military negligence; the second, Carlo Zeno, was somewhere off in the East. So serious was the threat to the city that Pisani was promptly released, and then put in command of the fleet that set out in December – with the doge himself on board – to blockade the enemy. Zeno and his contingent sailed over the horizon on the first day of the new year and there followed months of siege warfare, in the course of which the Venetian navy employed shipboard cannons for the first time. (Casualties from cannonballs were as high on the Venetian side as on the Genoese, and some crews refused to operate these suicidal weapons more than once a day.) In June 1380, with medieval Chioggia in ruins, the enemy surrendered, and from then until the arrival of Napoleon’s ships the Venetian lagoon remained impregnable.