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By Bruce Johnston in Rome, Electronic
Telegraph
An
ambitious project has begun to raise the level of the area
around St Mark's Square in Venice by up to 10in to protect
it from ever more frequent flooding.
The
piazza, the city's old legal and administrative hub, which
Napoleon called the "drawing room of Europe",
is Venice's lowest and most flood-prone point. The area,
thought to have lost 10in to the sea in the past century,
is inundated five times more often than the rest of the
city and the sight of people having to cross it on duckboards
has become commonplace.
Flooding
also plays havoc with parts of the 12th century floor of
St Mark's Basilica. On a level four inches lower than the
lagoon basin where gondolas are kept, it flooded 250 times
last year. The St Mark's project, which is expected to cost
£30 million and will take five years to complete,
began this week.
The
first stage will be to heighten a 150-yard stretch of lagoon
front by eight inches. Work will then begin in a few months
to protect the richly decorated floor of the basilica. Each
piece of mosaic will be removed until the work is completed
and will then be replaced.
A further
stage will be to remove paving stones from the piazza to
lay a thick, waterproof clay and ash membrane underneath
them. But Anna Ranghieri, of the Venezia Nuova consortium
appointed by the city council, which controls all work in
the city centre, said that while the work would greatly
reduce flooding it would succeed only as part of a wider
plan to safeguard Venice.
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