The Venetian Lagoon

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured in September 2023, features the crescent-shaped Venetian lagoon and the islands that make up the Italian floating city of Venice.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full 10 m resolution.

Snaking through the central districts is the Grand Canal, with the Santa Lucia train station at its northern end and the Saint Mark Basin at its southern end. The U-shaped Port of Venice is visible west of the city. The small square island to the north is San Michele. Once a prison island, it became a cemetery when Napoleon’s occupying forces declared burial on the main islands unsanitary. North of San Michele lies the island of Murano, the manufacturing centre for the renowned Venetian glass.

Zooming in, we can see the traffic of taxis and water buses, or ‘vaporetti’, navigating the canals and connecting the various islands in the lagoon.

The lagoon is surrounded by an agricultural landscape dominated by fields. Agriculture is one of the main industries in this area because of the fertile soils, with cereals, including rice, and a variety of vegetables most commonly grown.