Ages of the Arsenal

On the second day of our trip in Venice we visited the original Arsenal of the Venetian Army. Part of the intrigue of visiting the Arsenal was getting to see a place that other tourists are generally unable to go. The Arsenal does not function like it once used to but some military work still goes on there, making the access restricted. The entrance of the Arsenal is grand and there are many symbols throughout it. The lion on the left had names written into it of soldiers who had returned from war and had killed an enemy soldier. The lion in the center of the arch is a representative symbol of San Marco. This lion has wings and in peace times the wings are open, but in war times the wings are to be closed. 

Once you enter through the massive walls surrounding the Arsenal, originally put up for privacy purposes, you are exposed to a massive waterway with buildings and docks lining both sides of it. The part of the Arsenal you enter is known as the Old Arsenal because it was all that was originally there. From our article, we learned that over time there were two large additions made to expand the Arsenal to help Venetians withstand different wars. The area of the first addition is known as the New Arsenal. The second addition is known as the Newest Arsenal. While all of the buildings are now seemingly very old to us, it was cool that you could tell the difference between each of the three areas. 

The trip to the Arsenal was very cool and our tour guide tried to take us to as many areas as possible, but the Military guy also with our group would not allow us to go in many places. The Venetians were the first to have a permanent navy force which brought them great success for a while. Overall, it was crazy to think that once upon a time that Arsenal was years ahead of its time, but yet to us today, we see it as small relative to what now exists as functioning Arsenals.