Mestre and Marghera

For a view of a slightly different Venice, stand on the Zattere, across the broad Giudecca Canal from Palladio’s Church of the Redentore, and look towards the west. Over at the far end of the Giudecca you’ll see such classics of Venetian architecture as the old Venezia Brewery, the Women’s Prison and the massive brick Victorian hulk called the Mulino Stucky, a flour factory built in the 1890s by a German architect, and now a fancy hotel.

On the horizon, the steel and concrete skyline of Marghera closes the view down the canal: tall smokestacks in parfait stripes, glittering oil tanks and refinery towers, the perfect arch of a pipeline crossing high over a canal. Created from marshland, Marghera (its name comes from the Venetian Mar gh' era, or 'There was the sea') was the result of a decision in 1917 by the Italian government, following the plan to develop an industrial port opposite the mainland town of Mestre.