The Mainland of Venice
Towers, squares and parks!
The "Terraferma" is that part of the city of Venice which extends across the adjacent mainland; it consists of the districts of:
If the Lagoon hosts the City, the mainland hosts its alter ego, Mestre. Connected to Venice by a four kilometre-long bridge, Mestre together with the neighbouring Chirignago, Zelarino and Favaro completes the city administrative area. The heart of this important centre of population has long been the hang-out of choice of the young Mestrini, who regularly get together for the evening happy-hour or the pre-disco aperitif. This is the Piazza Ferretto, home to architectural masterpieces such as the Toniolo theatre, the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence, the King's Palace, The Palace of the Podesta', and the Clocktower, a square bastion, twenty four metres high with Venetian-style battlements, at the northern end, the last remnant of the old walled city. Piazza XVII October, a few metres distant is commonly known as Piazza Barche ("..of the Boats"), because it was created by filling-in an old harbour where the boats coming from the Lagoon used to moor.
It is, however, a more remote period of history which has left as part of Mestre's cultural inheritance the traces of an extensive defensive system in the shape of a number of structures scattered around the Venetian mainland, now put to recreational and tourist use. These are the old forts, which now mark out a long and stimulating nature trail and which were linked to the historic Arsenal, from which the powerful fleet of the "Serenissima Republic" sailed forth. For years out of the public gaze because they remained military property, Fort Marghera, the largest of the fortifications on the mainland with forty hectares, Fort Manin, Fort Bazzera, the powder magazine, and Fort Carpenedo, where the hospital, barracks and stables dating from the late 1800s have been restored, still survive.
Another important resource in Mestre is the newly created San Giuliano Park, the largest waterfront park in Europe; one hundred hectares of fresh air facing onto the Venetian Lagoon offers the visitor to Mestre an exciting panorama of the City. San Giuliano also represents an addition to the already existing green spaces on the Venetian mainland such as the Albanese Park and the Piraghetto Park.
