Walking around Venice, you can't miss them: in the middle of almost every campo (the Venetian "squares") stands a wellhead (vera da pozzo), often made of Istrian stone or marble and decorated with coats of arms, saints and inscriptions. It seems like a paradox: why dig wells in a city surrounded by water?
The answer is simple: the water of the lagoon is salty. Venice has always had water everywhere, except the kind you can drink. Unlike most cities, in fact, it didn't grow up along the course of a river.
A well that isn't a well
Venetian wells don't draw from an underground water table like those on the mainland. They are actually cisterns for collecting rainwater, and they work thanks to a system as simple as it is ingenious.
Each campo was gently sloped so that rain would flow towards a few stone drains, the pilelle. Beneath the paving, a large basin was dug, waterproofed with clay and filled with sand. The water slowly seeped through the sand, was purified, and collected in a central brick shaft, from which it was drawn with a bucket. On top sat the wellhead: the "parapet" we admire today as a small monument.
A precious, closely guarded resource
Fresh water was a vital resource, and the Republic treated it accordingly. Public wells were closed with lids and padlocks, opened only at set times, and their upkeep was carefully monitored. Poisoning or polluting a well was an extremely serious crime.
In times of drought the cisterns weren't enough: that's when the acquaroli (water carriers) stepped in, bringing fresh water from the Brenta river into the city by boat and selling it in the campi and to families.
And today?
In 1884 the aqueduct from the mainland arrived, and the wells lost their purpose. Many were sealed with metal lids, but the wellheads stayed where they were: silent witnesses to a city that for centuries had to use all its ingenuity to survive in the middle of the water.
Next time you sit on the step of a well to rest, take a good look at its wellhead: the coats of arms and inscriptions tell you who had it built, reminding us of a fundamental piece of Venice's history and architecture.