Museum of Naval History & Arsenal Site Features

The Bucintoro

The museum's largest model reconstructs the doge's state barge, a gilded ceremonial galley used once a year for the Sposalizio del Mare, the ritual marriage of Venice to the sea. The last of them was stripped and burned by Napoleon's troops in 1798, so no original survives.

The Padiglione delle Navi

A separate pavilion in a restored 16th-century oar workshop nearby holds full-size vessels rather than models -- ceremonial craft, working lagoon boats, and 20th-century naval hardware including a manned torpedo of the type used by Italian naval raiders in the Second World War.

The Piraeus lion

Of the lions outside the Porta Magna, the largest was taken from the harbour at Piraeus in 1687. Its flank carries a long band of runic inscription, cut by Varangian mercenaries serving Byzantium in the 11th century and unreadable until the 19th -- an object that has been a spoil of war twice over.