The Venetian Arsenal, Arsenale di Venezia was a “shipyard”, a sort of state owned shipyards and armories and naval store of munitions and storage facilities clustered together and located in Venice. It was the largest industrial complex in Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution, spanning an area of most 45 ha (110 acres) or cardinal percent of Venice. Surrounded by a 2 mi (3.2 km) rampart and its construction commencing in 1104 when city was a republic, a gated community of three thousand labourers and shipbuilders regularly worked in a sort of shipyards within the Arsenal, building ships that sailed from the city’s port. With high walls shielding the Arsenal from public view, guards protecting its perimeter, different areas of the Arsenal each produced a particular prefabricated ship part.
Venetian Arsenal
These parts would then be assembled as a ship in working visit where the fastest time for assemblement could be done in a day. An exclusive forest owned by the Arsenal navy, included the Montello hills in Veneto, provided the supply of wood to build ships. It was also here that Galileo in 1593, became an external consultant to the Arsenal, exposing him to military engineers and instrument makers, where he visited and solved shipbuilders problems the majority being ballistic in nature.
GPS coordinates: 45° 26′ 7″ N, 12° 21′ 11″ E
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