Sottomarina

Sottomarina is a coastal town of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy, 45°13N 12°18E, occupying a sandbar 5.5 km long and up to 300 meters wide at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 25 km south of Venice (50 km by road); a bridge connects it to the comune of Chioggia (q.v.), of which it is a frazione. The population of Sottomarina is about 25,000; with 60 hotels and 17 campgrounds, it is almost entirely given over to seafront tourism, although the old core of the town includes several medieval churches, of brick.

Related Topics:
Province of Venice - Veneto - Italy - Lagoon of Venice - Venice - Comune - Chioggia (q.v.) - Frazione

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In Antiquity, Sottomarina and Chioggia were referred to as the fossa Clodia; in the Middle Ages, Sottomarina was known as Clugia minor by opposition to Clugia major, Chioggia proper. Sand bars are tenuous, and around the time of the Chioggia War Clugia minor was abandoned, not to be inhabited again in any significant way until the 18th century when a long sea wall of large cut stone blocks, the Murazzo, was built to prevent erosion on the Adriatic side of the bar. The Murazzo can still be seen today, but is now very much inland: in the 1930's the mole of S. Felice was built that delimits the southern end of the Lagoon, and Sottomarina started gaining about 3 meters a year on the sea.

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With its twenty thousand inhabitants, Sottomarina is a very large town to be a frazione, and is larger than many comuni, in the Veneto and elsewhere: but though a strong movement is afoot to gain it independence from Chioggia, so far it has not prevailed, despite episodic referendums, the last of which was held in 2001.

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