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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II HOUSES AND CHURCHES ON the islands of Rialto there rose at first wooden houses only; their foundations were laid on platforms (zatteroni) of larch, or on piles, because the ground, being composed of soft mud, clay, peat, and watery sand, was not suited for building in stone.1 Stone, on the other hand, was in common 1 These various layers of the subsoil are soft down to the depth of about thirty-five metres, when one comes on a strata of very firm clay about three metres thick. After that the layers of muddy peat, sandy clay of various colours, and watery sand come alternately. In order to render the ground firm enough to carry foundations, wooden platforms were laid in trenches. Notwithstanding the slight resistance offered by the subsoil, the mediaeval builders did not make their foundations either very wide or very strong. In the case of the campanile there is only a metre's difference in width between the top of the platform and the spring of the brick shaft. The gradual compression of the clay stratum produces a settlement and sinking of the soil of Venice. According to some, the level of the most antique pavements in the city is two metres below the present pavements; the mediaeval pavements are one metre, seventy centimetres, below the actual pavements. This would prove a settlement of about nine centimetres in a century. As a matter of fact the pavements of the streets and the ground floors of houses have frequently to be raised. To get a clearer idea of the insecurity of the Venetian subsoil we must bear in mind that in ancient times it has been broken up by violent earthquakes and subsidences of a volcanic nature. And in fact, if the ground is pierced, we come on tepid mud, while out at sea one meets with currents of warm water and submarine exhalations ...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217142311 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217142311 |
| Weight | 0.47 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.32 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 138 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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