Northern Italy's Forgotten Waterways

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Director: Hermann Peseckas , camera: Stefan Sternad

 

Production: ORFIII, 3sat & ipFILM

 

Documentary: 52 min./2017

 

The Piave flows from its source at Monte Peralba in the Carnic Alps to the Gulf of Venice - the city in the water that would not exist without this river. Because Venice needed wood.

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The fortification of the city, building bridges and houses, gondolas and the glass industry, all of this consumed huge amounts of wood. Spruce and larch trees of exceptional quality came from the mountain town of Obertilliach. The wood was transported on the Piave for centuries.

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It is a long chapter in Austro-Venetian history: the timber trade and the transport of goods via waterways from the Carnic Southern Alps to Venice. Without this wood, Venice would not exist in its current form. Just fortifying the city required huge amounts of wood; after all, the "Serenissima", as Venice is also called, was built on millions of wooden piles.

 

The film highlights the history and the most important paths of wood, the places, the people and their working conditions. The cultural peculiarities along the film route provide one or two surprises.