NAVIGATION AFTER THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY
The constant perfecting of techniques for the mechanical drainage of the flatter land areas and the spread of specific irrigation methods are some of the main reasons behind a more effective application of hydraulic engineering expertise not only to the low plains next to the northern Adriatic sea, but to much of the Po Valley. In the early nineteenth century, the operating rigor of the French engineers of the ‘Corp des Ponts et Chassueés’ provided a valuable lesson that largely influenced the technical skills of Lombardy-Venetia officials. These engineers promoted the adoption of a broader approach to design, which placed individual operations within the overall functional context of the river basin concerned. Increased focus on fluvial processes together with re-established land reclamation operations lay the foundation for land modernisation, to be boosted further following the Unification of Italy [Cavallo, 2011]. The chimneys of the steam dewatering pumps towered against the horizon of the flat lowlands, not unlike the initial accumulation of factories around urban centres, connected by fire-breathing locomotives, whose increasing presence was to contribute to the decline of river transport throughout Europe. The debate over the role of inland navigation captured the attention of both technicians and investors, whose expectations needed to be followed up by appropriate policy choices. The 1923 construction of the innovative artificial navigation basin in the town of Battaglia was without doubt the swan song of centuries of predominance succumbing to the faster and more versatile railway and street routes.
3.1 Nineteenth century decline
As early as 1821, engineer Marco Antonio Sanfermo emphasized in a manuscript the difficulty of maintaining regular traffic along the Brenta Nova river route: ‘Its oversized sections make it so there is too little water for the passage of boats […] except for some very light vessels from Chioggia’ [Sanfermo, 1821 Memoria VI].
The above is just an account of the general decadence that struck the waterway connection system during the first half of the nineteenth century, mainly due to the difficult political atmosphere of the times and the inefficient and irregular maintenance of embankments and handiwork too frequently marred by disastrous floods [Miliani, 1939]. Yet, greater attention paid to fluvial waterway connections should have been a top priority, given that traveling by land was precarious at best in large areas of Veneto’s lowlands, made more so by the prolonged rainfall during the Autumn and Winter seasons, well documented in an early nineteenth century manuscript describing the streets around Padua’s lowlands, ‘they are so bad and disastrous that one cannot tread upon them without putting one’s life at great risk and peril’ [B.C.P., fasc. XXV].
Concerning the navigation network headed by the port of Battaglia, another useful resource is found in an early nineteenth century manuscript describing the navigable rivers of the Padua Province written by Captain of Engineers Pietro Antonio Leter. According to this text, the network of navigable inland waterways that run through the Battaglia region appears unchanged from previous centuries. There is emphasis, however, on a shortage of outflows seen as the main obstacle, as in the case of the Cagnola canal, where navigability in fact depends, ‘on there being enough water, which in addition to the one found in this canal and deriving from the buildings of Battaglia, and others […] is being made to flow down from the middle Arc of Battaglia’ [Leter, B.C.P. fasc. XXIV]. Furthermore, Leter underlines the necessity of implementing a support made with gates that would allow boats to proceed from the Battaglia canal to the underlying Vigenzone-Cagnola-Bacchiglione structure.
A recurring theme among early nineteenth century essayists when faced with Padua’s hydrographic network, and particularly the one affecting the low plains between the Euganean Hills and the Adriatic sea, is the apparent inefficiency of the receiving water bodies, unable not only to permit smooth navigation, but also, in some conditions, to facilitate the flow of water from the drains of the surrounding countryside. These waterways are in fact ‘in such bad shape that they cannot receive drainage from lands that are inclined in their direction: this state of chaos is in addition to lost navigation in times of high and low water, stunted and precarious in the intermediate phase’ [Coppin, 1818, p. 25]. On a larger scale, similar problems may be observed along the major Po waterway, especially with ascending traffic, because of the, ‘very physical-hydrographic configuration of the river [that] was not conducive to the development of navigation, made difficult, above the mouth of the Oglio, by the steep gradient, the variability of the riverbed and shallow depths at times of low water’ [Bigatti, 1999, p. 7]. The prospects for the development of navigation were then conditioned by flow irregularities that made the use of mechanically propelled boats less than effective, as in the case of the Eridano, the first steamboat introduced in the Po river in 1820 [Sillano, 1989]. After the 1819 opening of the Naviglio Pavese canal, navigation along the Po could still benefit from a direct link with the port of Milan, although archaic propulsion techniques continued to be used, such as the power of currents, rowing, sailing, towing with animals from towpaths. With such means of propulsion, it is easy to imagine that fluvial transportation was slow, making it increasingly less attractive to businessmen and traders.
Just as in the rest of Europe, the recently constituted Kingdom of Italy experienced the extraordinary competitive pull of railways. For example, the Padua-Venice railroad, inaugurated on 2nd December 1842, marked the beginning of the inevitable decline of navigation along the Brenta Riviera. In the same way, water traffic along the Battaglia also began to fade after railway connections were built between Padua and Bologna in 1866 and between Monselice and Montagnana in 1885. It is also true, however, that while the railway was surely winning the race for interregional routes, well distributed habits involving small vessel activities stayed alive up until just after the First World War. This is seen as a theme of ‘neighbourly traffic’, a doubtlessly fascinating issue not only as part of historical and geographical research – despite significant difficulties due to the scarcity of documents available, thus leaving wide margins of uncertainty [Bonino, 1982] – but also as it relates to the latest strategies to retrieve the tangible and intangible heritage of nautical culture on the terra ferma.
It is however plausible to presume that the Veneto area maintained short-range nautical habits, documented in previous centuries by numerous and comprehensive reports, often supported by adequate cartographic surveys. However modest, the river people’s familiarity with and closeness to waterways is still detectable along much of Veneto’s hydrography. This is particularly true when it comes to the waterway system discussed in this paper. Here it is easy to come across old mooring docks hidden by mud and weeds, rustic wooden piers, rural villages (fig. 17), or individual farmhouses overlooking the river and connected to it by means of short and narrow stone steps touching its banks.
3.2 Traditional vessels
Those who would wander patiently along the trails at the top of the banks making up the hundreds of kilometres of intricate hydrographic mesh described in this document would struggle to find traces of traditional boats. The special design features of those last relics of a broad yet forgotten gamut of handicrafts responded to the need for safe and smooth navigation under certain flow conditions, and furthermore adapted to varying seabed depths, bank conditions, and needs of trade. The atmospheric Maritime Museum of Battaglia, ancient nautical fulcrum, is a vantage point for the study of watercrafts, supported by useful references to types of land and river landscapes, riverbed morphologies, and prevailing wind conditions.
It is certainly not easy to try and evoke scenarios of ancient navigation, but some impressive insight is provided thanks to the work of a number of researchers. This was achieved in spite of the dramatic side effects of a broad and uncritical adherence to the ‘economic miracle’ model that has triumphed since the end of the Fifties, which not only accelerated the end of inland navigation, but also eroded the peculiar tangible and intangible elements of relations between land and river that had been vital for centuries. For example, at the end of the Seventies, the leading traditional Italian navigation scholar Marco Bonino expressed inconsolable regret for not having undertaken earlier his inventory of small boats. It is in fact during the years of the ‘economic boom’ that the heritage of the Italian nautical tradition was the subject of neglect. Taking action during the fifties would have been enough to have a nearly complete picture, ‘therefore research now spans between ethnology/dialectology and naval archaeology, with increasingly fewer chances for future field research due to the disappearance of traditional boats and the people who built and used them’ [Bonino, 1982, p. 9].
Returning to the nautical relations within the Padua-Monselice-Chioggia hydrographic system, it is useful to remember how the remarkable geographical proximity of fluvial ports to the lagoon would provide a clear opportunity for a prolonged and mutually beneficial hybridization of building techniques, whose evolution and results are however not
so easily identifiable. Nonetheless, it may be confidently stated that lagoon shipbuilding exerted a strong influence along the main waterways of the lowlands, especially in the case of smaller sized vessels. In the face of all this uncertainty, some iconographic references from the end of the 17th century provide some suggestions as to this interesting aspect of material culture. Of particular interest is a chapter entitled De li navigli che si usano in tutti li fiumi e mari del mondo (Vessels used in all the rivers and seas of the world) found in the Atlas of Veneto handed down by cosmographer Vincenzo Coronelli, which provides a good description of some fluviallagoon specimens easily observable up until the middle of the last century, such as peata and burchiello [Coronelli, 1691]. Equally generous with details of vessels operating within the lowland-lagoon interface is the well-known collection of etchings by Gian Francesco Costa dedicated to the Delizie del Brenta (Delights of the Brenta) [Costa, 1762]. His realistic reconstructions of daily riparian life rely on quotations from several different types of boats (fig. 18), well documented by precious photographic material produced from the end of the 19th century by the Naya, Filippi and Ongania companies [Zannier, 1992].
Beyond these striking iconographic traditions, more reliable documentation is found once again from Sanfermo’s handwritten memoirs; in 1821 he drafted a detailed report listing the technical and operational data of all the vessels that sailed through Veneto’s hydrography at that time [Sanfermo, 1821]. The large variety of boats found in his text reveals interesting functional differences mainly due to the differing width and depth of rivers and canals navigated, despite virtually identical construction principles and a response to needs of very similar fluvial environments. As for the smaller boats used to ferry passengers from one bank to another or for short trips, defined by Sanfermo as assorted small boats, their diffusion was common to all the downstream rivers and canals of the region. Furthermore, he states that such boats were not used for commercial reasons, but for the practical daily transport needs of fishermen, hay, farm animals and feed, wood, and neighbourly relations, which included travel to mills and village markets [Pergolis, 1989]. These types of boats have also remained long in use on the waterways of the lowlands, practically up until the demise of inland navigation.
3.3 Ports, basins, waterways: the new landscape
Even within the framework of an attentive and thorough debate regarding the revival and modernisation of Italian inland navigation, technological inertia clearly characterises the vessel types, their tonnage, and propulsion means. Regarding the latter, most of the traditional cargo boats (burchio, gabarra, rascona, comacina, etc.) retained the practice of animal hauling and the use of sails up to the immediate postwar period; the use of engines only started from the late Forties.
The waterways of the lowlands were included in effective modernisation programs during the Fascist period, adopting the most up to date designs for the expansion of basins along with mechanised manoeuvres, using metallic structures for swing bridges, cutting and adjusting the most tortuous bends, consolidating embankments, and widening towpaths. Furthermore, these inland waterway-promoting activities had to be coordinated with land reclamation operations that led to the installation of new siphon culverts and the improvement of existing ones, along with the enhancement of electrically powered dewatering stations. New river landscapes began to form that validated the process of rural modernisation desired by the regime. However, one is struck by the fact that the numerous photographic campaigns celebrating this successful land recovery operation show that its widespread structural upgrade continued to host vessels that are almost everywhere unchanged when compared not only to Marco Antonio Sanfermo’s early 19th century reports, but also to Gianfrancesco Costa’s 18th century iconic tradition. The result is a curious contradiction between the new fast-filling basins and archaic sailboats such as the burchio and trabaccolo and even batela, smaller auxiliary boats transporting ropes intended for animal hauling. This striking coexistence between modern frameworks and old boating habits would be partly overcome not only with the gradual motorisation of boats briefly mentioned above, but also with the manufacturing of larger sized boats, despite the fact that the ancient morphology of the hulls remained unchanged until recent developments in shipyards.
This inertia characterising shipbuilding techniques between the 19th and 20th centuries suggests a striking ethnographic continuity with the navigation modes of the previous centuries. Furthermore, the system of nautical relations regarding the predominant route of the Battaglia canal, Bacchiglione and port of Brontolo was part of the strategic interests of the new, post-First World War Italy, aimed at achieving greater land development efficiency, deemed an indispensable requirement. A major boost in this direction came from the economic writings of the time, and especially those produced by the many local inland navigation committees, themselves stimulated by the objective nation-wide significance of the new port and industrial site of Marghera.
The Venetian port’s renewed prospects were the object of praise: open to global trade while at the same time enlivened by its great production centre well connected to a flat background. Located a short distance from steep hills offering plentiful supplies of running water that could be transformed into abundant power, the latter was also connected ‘to many coastal canals and various rivers that, though not very large and deep, flow for many miles through rich and industrious regions’ [Ruggeri, 1922, p. 3].
Reviving the port of Venice meant first of all recalibrating and improving the internal waterway network formed by Treviso, Monfalcone, Padua, and the Po route. This greater vision considered the port of Battaglia as one of the main connecting hubs to the lowlands for reclamation, and most of all to the River Po and the ports of Emilia and Lombardy. The need for the continued maintenance of rivers and canals was also emphasized with regard to secondary routes. This was not so much to meet radiant expectations of modern and intense industrial production destined for national and international markets, but to ensure product distribution in almost pre-autarkic fashion, in other words connected to a well-organised and profitable agricultural activity supported by fertile soil rich with water: ‘the industries of Padua’s province are as closely tied to its agriculture as is trade’. In fact, this required ‘an intense commercial movement of capital, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and the sale of products’ [Milone, 1929, p. 276], transporting abundant quantities of product for processing (cereals, beets, vegetables, grapes) from reclaimed land.
The renewed interest in the port of Padua may be understood along the same lines, ‘located in the fertile heart of the Veneto Region, where agriculture is strongly promoted, an important industrial, commercial, and financial centre, Padua should be the hub of a vast network of navigable waterways. It should have an efficient port equipped with modern docks and ample facilities for the temporary storage of goods’ [Cigana, 1923, p. 6]. Rather than reviving routes toward Vicenza along the Bacchiglione and to the middle of the Brenta and the modest port of Este, Padua’s fluvial enhancement involved challenging structural work that improved the waterway towards Marghera and Venice. Old Venetian Era basins, unable to accommodate the new 300-tonne burchio, were replaced, and a series of excavations
were started to adjust the bed section of the Naviglio della Brenta canal.
In this context of design fervour, fuelled by the regime’s rhetorical use of public works, the Battaglia basin is worth mentioning as perhaps the most important work of Veneto’s entire waterway system; it was the essential junction to allow boats to pass from the Battaglia Canal to the underlying waterway heading towards the Bacchiglione and vice versa (fig. 19). Work began in 1919 and ended in the spring of 1923. In addition to the actual benefits of river traffic, this undertaking was invested with a far from negligible symbolic value. The design of a rapidly filled basin and gates driven by an innovative water pressure mechanism, avoiding the consumption of power, evoked ability and efficiency in exploiting local potential, but also in saving time, thus translating into ‘speed,’ the most successful of modernist metaphors. Thus a rapid solution to the height difference between the two canals [Cucchini 1931, p. 172] and the faster nautical connections along the routes to the south of Padua were a clear contribution to the country’s modernisation objectives. Mussolini could not miss this opportunity and inaugurated the work on 1st June 1923, thus starting the epic national era of great artificial hydraulic works.
Following the main basin construction, the areas of each of the upstream and downstream basins were expanded to 10,000 square metres. The efficient and modern design of this dock site was completed with the construction of two new reinforced concrete bridges straddling the waterway, adjustments to the embankments along the Battaglia canal, and the erection of a house for the basin’s operators. The result was a new fluvial landscape whose functionality expressed features that married well with the pre-existing organisation of riverine spaces. The rich formal heritage celebrated by the well-known land and river icons of the Battaglia canal dominated by the castle of Cataio, the villas of Molin and Selvatico, the terraced settlements, and the characteristic terracotta bridges, now acquired a new identity thanks to the basin. The visibility of the basin was then increased by the fleet of cargo boats waiting to use it, through until the 1960s. Again, as already pointed out in other parts of this essay, one can see the close link between technology and aesthetics in land and water scenarios. In the case considered here, the wealth of relevant photographic documentation regarding the basin and its picturesque Padua burchio make this quite evident.
Francesco Vallerani