If there’s one thing we know about Venice, it’s that it’s unique. What other city is built on water, or packed with its signature flamboyant architecture?
It turns out, quite a few.
The Republic of Venice – or the Most Serene Republic of Venice, to give it its full name – existed for 1,100 years, from 697 CE to 1797 CE, when Napoleon conquered the city.
It’s an astonishing length of time for a period when upheavals, coups and conquerings were regular events.
And as it gained in power, it built a pseudo empire along the Adriatic – not so much on the Italian side, but on the eastern coast, in countries such as modern day Slovenia, Croatia, Albania and Greece. Its tentacles even stretched as far as Crete and Cyprus.
As one end of the Silk Road trading route, the city-state was one of the most cosmopolitan in Europe, taking inspiration for its frothy architecture and glittering interiors from all over the globe. And it took that outré look with it, to the towns it ruled and allied with.
That means that the eastern side of the Adriatic was once littered with mini Venices – not crisscrossed with canals, but with the lion of St Mark, Venice’s emblem, sculpted onto city walls; elaborate wells in Venetian-style campi (squares); and those famously flamboyant buildings, with porticoes, frilly-edged windows, and, everywhere, campanili (belltowers) looking like the one in St Mark’s Square.
Today, many of these mini Venices remain. Here are some of the most atmospheric.
Piran, Slovenia
Calling to you from sea and land alike, the belltower of pretty Piran is a dead ringer for the famous campanile of St Mark’s Square.
This is Venice, if Venice were a village. Part of the Venetian Republic from 1283 to 1797, when the Austrians took over, it was a semi-autonomous town. Not that it’s stuck in the past – it’s thought to be the first town in the former Yugoslavia to elect a Black mayor, Ghanaian-born Peter Bossman, who was elected in 2010.
Sure, there are no canals, and the little fishing boats moored in the center of town are a far cry from the ferries and cruise ships in Venice, but this little oasis of calm on the Adriatic has frothy Venetian-style buildings on Tartini Square, including the 15th-century red, Gothic “Venetian House,” and a lion of St Mark on the town hall. That campanile? It belongs to the cathedral of St George, perched high on the rocks.
Istria – this huge, wedge-shaped peninsula at the northern end of the Adriatic – is littered with Venetian towns. Today, it’s mostly part of Croatia, with a sliver at the top based in Slovenia. Take a coastal roadtrip and you’ll see Venetian-style campanile after campanile.
Izola, nearby, is very similar.
Koper, Slovenia
Found the Rialto Bridge in Venice too crowded? Hop two hours east and across the Slovenian border to Koper, where the city’s Da Ponte fountain (Da Pontejev vodnjak) is a reproduction of Venice’s most famous bridge. The mini Rialto, commissioned in 1666, is just one of many Venetian elements – this was once the capital of Venetian Istria. In fact, it sits almost directly opposite Venice, with the Adriatic in between.
The cream-colored, turreted Praetorian Palace has a grand outdoor staircase that reminds you of the Doge’s Palace, and the Cathedral of the Assumption has a Venetian belltower, a Venice-cast bell and a work by Carpaccio, one of Venice’s greatest Renaissance artists.
Grado, Italy
Cantilevered over an island-filled lagoon on a sandbar of its own, Grado seems familiar. In fact, this, in neighboring region Friuli Venezia Giulia, 90 minutes northeast of La Serenissima, is known as the “mother of Venice,” being founded in Roman times but home to refugees fleeing from the mainland in the fifth and sixth centuries – like Venice.
The bishops of nearby Aquileia moved their HQ here, allying themselves first with the Byzantines and then with Venice. That’s why you’ll see the Campo dei Patriarchi – as in Venice, a square is called a campo not a piazza – with its churches that resemble those on Venice’s Torcello island, a Venetian-style belltower, and long swathes of sand, like the Venice Lido.
Corfu Town, Greece
At the mouth of the Adriatic, the Ionian islands were a key part of the Venetian territories, and the UNESCO-protected Corfu Town is one of the best examples of the Republic’s influence.
The French wrested control in 1797 when the Republic fell, but beforehand, the Venetians had built no fewer than three fortresses, which still exist – as do the countless pastel-colored, Neoclassical palazzos and stately loggias that line it.
So although this isn’t exactly a mini Venice, think of it as if Venice was plonked into an urban setting. According to Corfiot author Anastasia Miari, the food is reminiscent of the Venetian Republic, too.
Other Venetian settlements in Greece include Nafplio, on the Peloponnese; Cycladic island Syros; and Crete, where a Venetian lighthouse still looms over the harbor at Chania.
Svetvincenat, Croatia
First things first: this isn’t on the water. Yet, half an hour due north of Pula, and deep inside the Istrian peninsula, this pretty village still exudes Venetian style.
This was once border country – which explains why the village is dominated by the hulking Morosini-Grimani castle, rebuilt in the 1500s by the patrician Grimani family (in Venice, you can visit Palazzo Grimani, which belonged to one of the family branches).
But the sight that’ll whisk you straight over to La Serenissima is the main square. Istria’s finest example of Renaissance town planning, its church and belltower overlook neat houses, a loggia, and a typical Venetian well. Wondering what residential Venice looked like in the 1500s? This is it.
Chioggia, Italy
When the crowds get too large in Venice, take the vaporetto to the Lido island and hop on the number 11 ferry, which will cleave through the lagoon, ending at Chioggia – perched on five islands, at the southern end of the Venetian lagoon.
Much of this fishing town will seem familiar: the pretty canals, straddled by ancient bridges; the grand palazzos; the art-stuffed churches; and the shimmering lagoon views with the Dolomites in the background.
Unlike Venice, though, cars are allowed into Chioggia, so the main street is a busy road, and some of those cutesy bridges have cars driving over them.
It’s also a major fishing town still, and you’ll see the big boats parked up below the church of St Dominic, as well as folk art by said fishermen in the church itself.