Venice - Italy - *Gondola* - Video by Laderzi

The gondola is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian Lagoon. For centuries gondolas were once the chief means of transportation and most common watercraft within Venice. In modern times the iconic boats still have a role in public transport in the city, serving as traghetti (ferries) over the Grand Canal. They are also used in special regattas (rowing races) held amongst gondoliers[1]. Their primary role, however, is to carry tourists on rides at established prices[2].

HISTORT AND USAGE

The gondola is propelled by a person (the gondolier) who stands facing the bow and rows with a forward stroke, followed by a compensating backward stroke. Contrary to popular belief, the gondola is never poled like a punt as the waters of Venice are too deep. Until the early 20th century, as many photographs attest, gondolas were often fitted with a "felce," a small cabin, to protect the passengers from the weather or from onlookers. Its windows could be closed with louvered shutters—the original "venetian blinds." After the elimination of the traditional felce—possibly in response to tourists complaining that it blocked the view—there survived for some decades a kind of vestigial summer awning, known as the "tendalin" (these can be seen on gondolas as late as the mid-1950s, in the film "Summertime"). A sumptuary law of Venice required that gondolas should be painted black, and they are customarily so painted now.

It is estimated that there were eight to ten thousand gondolas during the 17th and 18th century. There are just over four hundred in active service today, virtually all of them used for hire by tourists. Those few that are in private ownership are either hired out to Venetians for weddings or used for racing.[3]

During their heyday as a means of public transports, teams of 4 men; 3 oarsmen and a 4th person, primarily shore based and responsible for the booking/administration of the gondola (Il Rosso Riserva), would share ownership of a gondola. However as the gondolas became more of a tourist attraction than a mode of public transport all but one of these cooperatives and their offices have closed. The category is now protected by the Institution for the Protection and Conservation of Gondolas and Gondoliers[4], headquartered in the historical center of Venice.

The construction of the gondola continued to evolve until the mid-20th century, when the city government prohibited any further modifications. The oar or rèmo is held in an oar lock known as a fórcola. The forcola is of a complicated shape, allowing several positions of the oar for slow forward rowing, powerful forward rowing, turning, slowing down, rowing backwards, and stopping. The ornament on the front of the boat is called the fèrro (meaning iron) and can be made from brass, stainless steel, or aluminium. It serves as decoration and as counterweight for the gondolier standing near the stern.

Gondolas are hand made using 8 different types of wood (fir, oak, cherry, walnut, elm, mahogany, larch and lime) and are composed of 280 pieces.[5] The oars are made of beech wood. The left side of the gondola is made longer than the right side. This asymmetry causes the gondola to resist the tendency to turn toward the left at the forward stroke. It is a common misconception that the gondola is a paddled vessel when the correct term is rowed i.e. "I rowed my gondola to work".

The profession of gondolier is controlled by a guild, which issues a limited number of licenses granted after periods of training and apprenticeship, and a major comprehensive exam[6] which tests knowledge of Venetian history and landmarks, foreign language skills, and practical skills in handling the Gondola[7] typically necessary in the tight spaces of Venetian canals.

The gondola is also one of the vessels typically used in both ceremonial and competitive Regattas, rowing races held amongst gondoliers using the technique of Voga alla Veneta.

The origin of the word "gondola" has never been satisfactorily established, despite many interesting theories.[8]

In 2009 Giorgia Boscolo became Venice's first female gondolier.

References in literature and history

Mark Twain visited Venice in the summer of 1867. He dedicated much of The Innocents Abroad, chapter 23 to describing the curiosity of urban life with gondolas and gondoliers.

Gilbert and Sullivan's two-act comic operetta The Gondoliers is set in Venice, and the show's two protagonists (as well as its men's chorus) are of the eponymous profession, even though the political satire that makes up the core of the show has much more to do with British society than Venice.

The Japanese manga Aria follows a young woman named Akari as she trains as an apprentice gondolier in Neo-Venezia, a city on a terraformed Mars based on Venice.

Notes:

1 -Siti of City of Venice dedicated to the Historical Regatta
2 -Official fares for gondola rides in Venice
3 -R. Davis & G. Marvin, Venice, the Tourist Maze pp. 133-59
4 -Official site for the Institute of the preservation of the gondola e protection of gondoliers
5 -Gondola Article
6 -Daily Telegraph article "Gondolier course in Venice: stick your oar in"
7 -Corriere della Sera article (in Italian)
8 -Daily Telegraph article on history of the gondola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Where gondole were born

The gondola is a "unique" and fascinating boat. Its components bring still today so particular names that they sound fairy and misterious. The gondola could be born only in one place with a secret charm: the "squèro". The squero is a sort of shipyard for the building of crafts. Its name seems to come from the Greek "eskarion"(= shipyard, small port for the launch); some scholar of Venetian things would make it come from "squara", the instrument used by carpenters. But if the etymon is rather uncertain, one thing is certain: in a Venice born on a network of islands and canals, the art of building boats was vital and the "squeri" scattered the city like the ganglions of a lymphatic system.

There were squeri of different dimensions: from the smallest for the building or the simple reparation of small boats, to the biggest ones, where they could take shape boats of a certain tonnage or even ships( the ship squeri), till that huge "State Squero" that was the Arsenal, active in Venice from the twelfth century. In the map of Venice attributed to Jacopo de' Barbari of 1500, we can see precisely details of many squeri. In the particular aside we can see 2 squeri of St. Moise' area. We have coloured in brown the covered structures, the socalled "tese", and in yellow the external space sloping to the canal. A characteristic of all the squeri is, in fact, the presence of the square inclined to the canal. [...]

Read further at : http://www.gondolavenezia.it/history.asp?scelto=1

The history and origins of the gondola

The gondola is the symbol of Venice and is shrouded in myth and mystery, writes Tim Jepson.

Dark, silent and sinister, the gondola - for all its romantic allure - is an equivocal vessel. "Moths of which coffins might have been the chrysalis," mused Shelley in 1818.

Little brings Venice so swiftly to mind as this unique vessel, but few objects so emblematic of a city are as mysterious in their origins, so rigid in their present-day appearance or so convoluted in their evolution.
Today, gondolas are remarkably uniform. They weigh 1,500lbs (700kg), have 280 components and use eight types of wood - lime, larch, oak, fir, cherry, walmut, elm and mahogony. All have an oar (made from beech) and a walnut forcola, or rowlock, each carved to suit individual gondoliers and designed to allow eight distinct manouevres.
All are exactly 10.87m long (35ft 6ins) and 1.42m wide (4ft 6ins), and all have one side 24cm (10ins) longer than the other.

This last anomaly came late in the gondola's evolution, in the 19th century. Added to compensate for the weight of the gondolier, the imbalance lends the gondola its distinctive lean and lopsided appearance.
Other refinements are much older. Some scholars claim gondolas date back to 697, though the first accepted documentary reference appeared in 1094. No-one, however, can agree on where the name comes from - some say it has Maltese or Turkish origins, others that it comes from the Greek for "cup" or "mussel".
Whatever its origin, the gondola evolved gradually. The shallows and mud flats of the Venetian lagoon demanded a shallow-drafted vessel from earliest times.

In the 13th century, the resulting boat had 12 oars; by the 15th the "gondola" had shrunk but acquired a felze, or cabin, By 1562, boats were so encumbered with decoration that the authorities issued a special law banning ostentation of any kind.
Thereafter, gondolas were a uniform black and their exteriors restricted to just three flourishes - a curly tail, a pair of seahorses and a multi-pronged ferro, or prow. These are still the gondola's only metal elements.
The prow's origins are even more mysterious than those of the gondola - some have five pettini, or prongs, some six (perhaps symbolic of Venice's six sestieri, or districts).

The prow's single prong facing aft may be a symbol of the Doge's Palace, the Giudecca island, Cyprus (part of Venice's former empire) or Piazza San Marco.
The broad-edged "blade" capping the prow may represent the sea, a lily, a doge's hat, a Venetian halberd or the Rialto Bridge.
Depending who you believe, the ferro was inspired by Roman galleys, a judicial axe or the funerary barges of ancient Egypt.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/venice/738294/The-history-and-origins-of-the-gondola.html