“The magnificent, trumpetlike chimneys resembling medieval turrets in the backdrop of every Madonna and Crucifixion idle and gradually crumble away from the local skyline” (Iosif Brodskij, Watermark)
Strolling around Venice with your nose in the air, you will see a large number of chimneys of different shapes. They’re part of Venice’s fascinating minor architectural heritage, they are structural elements, with a precise functionality, important part of its landscape.
Venice counts about 7,000 chimneys, evidence of the gradual historic-architectural stratification of the city.
You will see dozens of different shapes: bell-shaped,on the roof of Palazzo Dario; double or triple fork shape, in Fondamenta della Misericordia. You can recognize a truncated cone shape chimney from the Bridge of Pugni in San Barnaba; a cylindrical or cubic shield, covered by Istria stone, in campo Sant’Agostino; a truncated pyramid shape from Ponte Pasqualigo in campo Santa Maria Formosa; a dado shape on the San Stae canal; a cusp-shaped in marble, like that of Zecca, in Piazza San Marco, by Jacopo Sansovino; a bell tower shape in campo San Fantin; the obelisk-shaped ones on the roof of Papadopoli Palace.
In the paintings of great painters like Carpaccio, Bellini, Canaletto we find the Renaissance Venice in these unique artifacts, an outstanding example of Venetian art of chimney construction.
From “DeTourism”