BLACKSMITS

One of the symbols of the gondola and of Venice itself is for sure the metal piece that you can see at the bow of every boat.

They are made by the blacksmiths (in Venice called “Fravi”), who also take care of the others metal parts of the gondola, like the metal piece at the stern.

The blacksmiths played a decisive role in the Venetian Republic because they were the makers of the tools used by the other craftsmen. At the beginning, the metal parts of the gondola were forged in the mountains, more exactly in the Cadore area, where also most part of the carpenters came from.

The shape of the front part of the gondola remained the same for centuries, even although with different dimensions and proportions. It’s interesting to see how, in 1494 Vittore Carpaccio painted “The miracle of the relic of the cross” in Rialto, showing us the gondolas as they were at that time: much more simple and with no decoration in the front (by the way, in this painting the Rialto bridge is also very different from the one you see today, constructed one century later). Originally, this painting was inside the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, nowadays you can admire it inside the Accademia’s Galleries.

You can measure the skill of the blacksmith from the thickness of the “ferro da prua”, because it decreases sideways from eighteen to four millimeters and its elegance lies in the tapering. In Venice the “ferro da prua” is also called “dolfin”, and you can find traces of the ancients blacksmiths in the toponymy of Venice: one of the most important street of the city is “Calle dei Fabbri”.