Barbacani

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In the densely crowded city of Venice (once one of the most urbanised places in the world), where ground space was at a premium, residents made small, but valuable, extensions to their properties through the use of barbacani. 

Barbacani are wooden or stone projections, which enabled the owner of a property to increase his/her living space without encroaching on the flow of traffic in the streets below. Needless to say, the powers that be were not slow to regulate the length of the barbacani, nor to tax their use. 

In the Calle de la Madona we find the 'barbacane campioni', which, as the inscription (PER LA IVRIDICIOM DE BARBACANI) declares, was the standard measure for the use of barbacani throughout the city. ​

Barbacane Campioni, Calle de la Madona

Calle del Paradiso