Third Column Venice

08/07/2018

Due to a change in programming the interview will be broadcast during next days. Help us to spread the word by putting like and sharing the page. Thank you all!

08/07/2018

This evening at 8 p.m. CET at TG1, the First Channel of RAI Television, you can watch the interview of the Aurora's Project creator, Captain Roberto Padoan. Please help us in sharing this info with as many people as possible. Thank you.

07/07/2018

Today the creator of the project, Captain Roberto Padoan, has been interviewed by the First Channel Public Television RAI!
The interview can be seen tomorrow at 8 p.m.. Please help us in sharing this info with as many people as possible. Thank you.

04/06/2018

We are getting exposure from international newspapers ...

A group of explorers hopes to solve one of Venice’s most enduring mysteries – the fate of a giant triumphal column that is believed to have disappeared nearly 1,000 years ago.

03/06/2018

ACLA (Clear Water Transparent Lagoon) is a registered technique patented by captain Roberto Padoan in 2014. ACLA consists in filtering underwater particles (clay, plancton, sediments and microorganisms) within a given area of analysis, framed by a nylon structure. Within the defined area the scuba diver profits from an high accuracy in underwater investigation for visibility is enhanced by the purified water. ACLA will be applied during the underwater archaeological research for both localising the third column and studying the status of the foundations of piazza San Marco. The technique does not use any chemical substance: its application is completely environment-friendly.

02/06/2018

Piazzetta San Marco foundations analysis.
Through the application of the ERT–Electric Resistivity Tomography, Progetto Aurora proposes a method of archaeological research with no actual digging, which allows the accurate observation of the underground level.

01/06/2018

This operation will be applied with special attention to the preservation of the paving stones as well as the environmental eco-system of the lagoon.

31/05/2018

ERT is a non-invasive technique of geophysical investigation that allows the detection of underground cavities, areas characterized by the prevalence of resistive material (eg. brick and stone), foundations and archaeological artefacts that differ from the context in which they are located. The methodology consists in determining the electrical characteristics of the soil and of the materials crossed by electric current.

27/05/2018

Others trace the columns arrival from Tyre, as the Venetians conquered the lebanese city in the 1122-24 crusade and possibly looted some of the columns forming the Temple of Melqart (see image below).

25/05/2018

There are different historical opinions around such myth and its historiography— the columns' source and exact arrival—is still unclear due to the lack of first hand accounts. However, according to Guido Tigler (1999) the columns arrived from Costantinople, as he argues that under the Byzantine empire many decorative columns were used to showcase statues of emperors or holy animals (see below Buondelmonti’s illustration from Liber Insularum [1422]).

25/05/2018

Later in history, the area became the main site for capital executions and was known for its ritualistic brutality. Even now, superstitious locals refuse to pass between the columns as this would create negative energies and bad luck. Above all, the two lofty columns functioned as a gate for the Serenissima: boats of all sorts arriving from the corners of the Mediterranean would observe their striking presence from far away. Their symbolic prominence is also declared by the statues surmounting them: on one, San Teodoro— the patron of Venice until 828 AD— killing the Dragon, while San Marco’s Lion, the city's successive and current protector on the other.

24/05/2018

During this process one of the three columns fell into the deep blue sea due to unexpected stormy weather and was entirely lost. As a consequence of this unlucky operation, the other two columns laid on the square ground for several years or even decades: nobody wished to take on the responsibility of raising these enormous artefacts. The turning point occurred with the arrival of an astute engineer, Niccolò Barattieri (or Barattiero) who succeeded in erecting them employing wet ropes through an innovative technique. The Engineer was rewarded with the use of the space between the two columns—which he assigned to privatised gambling, an utterly illegal practice throughout the entire Serenissima.