Courts and Courtyards in Venice
In a city in which people have always reached places walking, across winding paths, bordering canals and crossing bridges, there is a dense grid of paths that from time-to-time lead into large spaces, the campi (kind of squares), and much more frequently cross smaller spaces, the corti and campielli (courts and courtyards) of the hidden Venice.
Of this apparently random plot of streets, you can understand its meaning only if you remember the long urban history of Venice. Starting from the initial archipelago of flat islands and shoals on which the city is said to rise, and on which it is gradually built, with an increasing building growth, gradually filling emerged lands once separated by wide canals.
A set of elementary urban cells was created each with its own central church and square and around a group of residential buildings designed so to open onto smaller courts, almost all equipped with wells, directly accessible and connected to each other: corti and campielli (courts and courtyards), places that cannot be found in any other urban centre, places that make everyday life welcoming.
These small public places of the hidden Venice, with floors constructed to convey rainwater into the underground tanks, were created to give to citizens the opportunity to have open spaces to socialize and get daily water supply, otherwise impossible.
The well became the focus point of the every day life and the reason for retreating. Fortunately, many wells still survive
The map of courts and courtyards has to be thought as the city water network before the construction of the aqueduct (end of nineteenth century).
A toponymic study has catalogued 215 courts and courtyards in Venice (including the Giudecca, Murano, Burano, Malamocco and Pellestrina islands).
For venetians the courts and courtyards still represent something intimate, unknown and hidden from the main routes. For those who appreciate a walk around the districts of Venice, a tour among the corti and campielli can be a discovery of an antique and less stereotyped Venice.
Margherita Pasotto
