Punta Sabbioni Historical Timeline

Origins

The sandbars closing the Venetian Lagoon were the Republic's outer defence, and the lagoon inlets were the points that mattered -- the sea entered there, and so could a fleet.

Turning points

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Cavallino peninsula was fortified with coastal batteries to defend the lagoon and the naval base at Venice, and these were manned during the First World War, when the Piave front ran to this coast.

Influential people

The peninsula behind was market garden and fishing valley -- vegetables on the lagoon side, sand and dune on the sea side.

Cultural evolution

From the 1960s the same peninsula filled with campsites, and Cavallino-Treporti became the densest concentration of open-air holiday accommodation in Europe.

Present-day significance

The MOSE barriers at the Lido inlet, designed to close the lagoon against high tides, are installed here, so the point continues to be exactly what it always was: the place where Venice is defended from the sea.