Mistress Museum of the Lady of the Mediterranean
And as in the Venetian arsenal
The viscous resin boils in winter,
To smear the plows, those that are dilapidated,
And everyone is doing winter things:
He gets along oars, this one scores
The gap in the body that flowed;
Who repairs the nose and who rips the stern;
Who works to make a new plow;
Who's howling howls, who's sails patching ...
Dante Alighieri. 21-th song of "Hell"
The viscous resin boils in winter,
To smear the plows, those that are dilapidated,
And everyone is doing winter things:
He gets along oars, this one scores
The gap in the body that flowed;
Who repairs the nose and who rips the stern;
Who works to make a new plow;
Who's howling howls, who's sails patching ...
Dante Alighieri. 21-th song of "Hell"
Military museums of Europe. Today we continue to get acquainted with weapons Collections various European museums. The object of our journey will be the Venetian Naval historical a museum. In order to be there, you first need to get to Venice, and this is interesting in itself. Therefore, the story of this museum will be built according to the scheme of travel notes, so that those who read this material could as accurately as possible imagine the beauties there. Indeed, there are a lot of people “with secrecy of up to five years” among visitors to the VO site. So when they retire, they will have to wait another five years to be able to find themselves where they want. In a word, we are now “going” to Venice and we will begin our acquaintance with her not from the traditional St. Mark’s Square, the Cathedral and Doge’s Palace, but from the Maritime Museum. And the reason for this is only one and rather unusual - few tourists reach it, and it’s still quite cool in the summer Venetian heat!
In the port of Venice, opposite the moorings for passenger boats, there are such cruise liners. Everyone brings 2000 people, and they all immediately rush to the city
And here is Venice public transport - the vaporetto maritime tram. However, why be surprised, because Venice today is the 119 islands surrounded by 150 channels
There is a ferry towards. But where he is going and who, where and what he is transporting is not clear. Cars in the city do not even smell
Local taxi!
“On the seas, on the waves - there is no other way!”
Let's start with how people generally get to Venice. There are only two ways. The first is a railway and a railway station in the city, and a bus. Car? Yes, of course, but in this case too, you will have to leave it in the parking lot, transfer to a boat, because there are simply no cars in Venice, so even a taxi is a motor boat there.
On the way to the city we admire these yachts. The yacht on the left is a trimaran!
And here is a yacht under the proud British flag. I wonder who it belongs to. Who decided to ride to Venice?
So, we go from the stop to the port, board a decent-sized double-decker boat, and sail to the very center of Venice. Boat moorings are located there one after another. But wherever you approach: St. Mark's Square and Doge's Palace are all within walking distance. The first thing that, by the way, is striking when you approach it from the sea, is ... the chamberness of all these buildings. By the way, Venice itself is very small, and all its palaces, even at four to five floors, do not produce the impression of tall buildings. Such is St. Mark's Square itself. It is only on the TV screen that it is large, and so - in reality, it is quite small. And, to the limit is filled with people! And with every new boat, the crowd is getting bigger. The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians ... God, who is not there. Well, ours, of course, where without us ...
Finally, we all have a familiar view of the Doge's Palace. To the left is the Campanile of St. Mark's Cathedral, a separate bell tower (campanile) 98,6 m high, from where a stunning view of the city opens
We land very close to this tower, and if we need to go to the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Square, we go to the left, and if we go straight to the Maritime Museum, go right
“It’s good with a guide, but it’s better to be independent!”
Usually, the guides of our Russian tour operators, even before arriving in Venice, collect money for lunch at a local restaurant with local dishes (20 euros per person) and for gondola rides (also 20), after which they quickly transfer you to the local guide in the square, who showed them in a hurry - “left, right ...”, leads the whole group to the Rialto Bridge, where this notorious restaurant is located. In my opinion, this route should not be followed. Firstly, this way you are guaranteed not to get to the Doge's Palace, and there is something to see there, and for fans of ancient weapons, I note that there also has its own wonderful Arsenal with a wonderful collection of medieval weapons and armor (a story about it will certainly follow, but later! ), and secondly, you have to hustle along with crowds of tourists along the narrow Venetian streets right up to the Rialto Bridge itself. Of course, it is interesting, but it was personally more interesting for me to see the “Bridge of Sighs”, and not only from the outside, but also to visit it inside.
This is what the museum building looks like
Well, in this bird's-eye photograph, it is at the very bottom right and you can see, by the way, which Venice is small in itself
Who is riding a gondola, who is going to museums!
So if you are more attracted by the informative side of visiting Venice, rather than entertaining, then stay on St. Mark's Square. Take the elevator to the bell tower, go to St. Mark's Cathedral, look at the Doge’s Palace, eat there in a cafe located in the basement near the water, with gondolas floating right in front of you behind the glass door, and then ... tired of the heat and crowds Tourists, go from the palace along the embankment to the left. One, two, three ... five bridges will need to be crossed (but in fact it is very close) and on the left side of the canal you will see a five-story building (looks like our four-story!) Of dark red color. You can also recognize him by the two large anchors at his doors. This will be the Naval Historical Museum of Venice.
An anchor from the battleship Viribus Units at the entrance to the museum
We go inside and enjoy the coolness there, because in Venice itself it is just hot in summer and very hot. By the way, you will need to think about this and about sun umbrellas in advance. Especially if women are with you. After all, your suitcases and all your luggage remain in the tourist bus. For example, we arrived in Berlin, and we had only one beach umbrella, although small in size. And ... it started to rain right away, and since my wife wasn’t having a walk with a beach umbrella in the German capital, I had to buy her a “Berlin umbrella”. We arrived in Venice, and there seemed to be a breeze blowing from the sea. Therefore, they didn’t take the umbrella, but take the breeze, and calm down. And then the granddaughter felt uneasy ... Obviously, she overheated in the sun. And I had to buy her a "Venetian umbrella." Not bad, of course, but in my opinion, three umbrellas in one trip is a little too much.
So the coolness of the museum will certainly refresh you. And the lack of crowds of tourists. Because with each new bridge there are fewer and fewer of them, and only a few reach the museum!
Anchors of the enemy for memory!
Although the same anchors that meet you at the entrance are also nothing but very interesting exhibits related to the history of Italian fleet. They belong to the Austro-Hungarian battleships Viribus Units and Tegethof. The first was destroyed by Italian combat swimmers at the very end of the First World War, and the second came to the Italians as a trophy and was carried out before the formation of the ships of the Italian fleet during the Victory Parade in 1919, and then it was scrapped already in 1925.
It is interesting that this year this museum has a real anniversary: it has celebrated exactly 100 years since its foundation in 1919, but in its present building it has been only since 1964. However, this building itself is also a monument, since it was built in the 15th century. An arsenal barn was located here, and grain was stored here, flour was ground from it and biscuits were baked, which were the main food of galley rowers. So the museum is large enough, although it does not seem so. It has 42 hall, and their total area is 4000 sq.m.
The famous Italian “Piglet” is the “Mayale” torpedo, with the help of which MAS swimmers blew up the English battleships “Valient” and “Queen Elizabeth” on the roads of Alexandria
Torpedo mechanisms primitive nowhere else!
The rudders of the torpedo were controlled by these “wires”. “Pull, baby, the rope, the door will open!”
This is what MAS swimmers were wearing
Torpedo and mortars
In the cool lobby of the first floor, our attention was immediately drawn to the heavy mortars on the right and the Mayale (Piglet) man-guided torpedo mounted on the left - a secret development of Italian military engineers from the 30 of the last century. During the Second World War, these torpedoes were actively used by units of combat swimmers (detachment of the 10-th fleet of MAS) in the Mediterranean Sea against the British. With their help, they managed to undermine and seriously damage several warships and transport vessels, but the Italian admirals could not take advantage of the current situation.
Hermetic hangar torpedo "Mayale". Here they were and they fought: the hatch reclined and a crew of two people sitting astride here on this “miracle of technology” set off to sink enemy ships
Usually on the Internet they place a photograph of this container from the side of the open lid (see the previous photo) with a torpedo half exiting from it. But I wanted to show what powerful stiffening ribs were on it. After all, the boat with these containers on the deck was supposed to operate at great depths
It is interesting that not only this torpedo was exhibited on the second floor, but also an airtight container in which such torpedoes were on the deck of the submarine. On the Shire submarine, for example, there were three such containers. Before the attack, the combat swimmers had to climb inside this container through the hatch, prepare the torpedo for launch, after which water entered it, they mounted on top of it, and the hemispherical lid opened, and the torpedo started moving toward the target. Once under the bottom of the enemy’s ship, they had to use special clamps that were mounted on port keels to stretch a cable under its bottom, and already fix a mine (torpedo bow) with an 200-300 kg explosive charge on it, turn on the timer, and only after all this, swim back, again riding your Piglet. And it was possible ... to get ashore and there to surrender, than in practice, because of the numerous failures of equipment, these trips often ended! The wetsuit worn by these combat swimmers was also on display in the window.
To the right of the entrance you will meet here such a Turkish bronze mortar, captured by Italians at a fort in Tripoli during the fighting in Libya in 1911-1912. And then the Turks fired from it!
An 90-pound cooler gun cast by Cosimo Senny in the 1643 year. Located on the middle deck of the Tuscany galley
Ship models for every taste
One of the advantages of this museum is its visibility. It displays not only real objects, weapons, uniforms, naval instruments, and even life-size gondolas and barges, but also many models of ships, starting with the ancient Egyptian little vessel, made by God when, for some, most likely, religious purpose . For example, on the first are dioramas depicting ports of the 17th century and fortresses that belonged to Italians, and their entire architecture is visible to them in full view. Here you can see models of the Phoenician, and the ancient Greek biremes and triremes, and all Asian little ships - sampans, junks and proas. The first Venetian caravels and galleons, galleys and galeases, similar to those that participated in the historical battle of Christians with Muslims at Lepanto in 1571, and the first Italian battleships that participated in the no less famous naval battle at Liss in 1866. There is a model of the famous battleship “Duilio”, and one even in the context, so that all of its “filling” is visible very well. And on the fourth floor in the "Swedish Hall" (it is dedicated to the cooperation of the Swedish and Italian fleets), a beautifully executed model of the battleship "Vaza" is exhibited. Well, that one ...
Ancient Egyptian boat with a man figure.
Model of one of the 17th century Venetian ships.
To be continued ...
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