Sinking City: Venice
Strip The City uses stunning CGI animation to strip the sinking city of Venice naked of its marble, bricks, bridges and canals - layer by layer – to explore the secret technology and infrastructure that enabled it to be built.
Sitting in a lagoon on the edge of the Adriatic Sea, Venice is made up of 118 islands, connected by over 400 bridges. More than 16 million visitors are drawn to ‘La Serenissima’ each year – but the city is under siege. With rising sea level it is gradually sinking and parts of the city flood 250 times every year.
How did Venice come to thrive in such an inhospitable place – and how will it survive today? This film looks beneath the city’s skin to discover the engineering wonders that allowed the city to grow. Stunning CGI animation peels bricks and stone from its historic buildings and drains its waterways to reveal their inner workings.
The city’s leading engineers and geologists reveal the secrets that keep Saint Mark’s bell tower from toppling and protect the city from flooding. We join a team of divers on the first underwater inspection of the 400 year old Rialto Bridge and explore how Venice’s new flood barriers are being built.
This film explores the geology that shaped the city’s past and challenges its future, from the soft ground that it sits on to the lagoon from which it grew.