Venice Cityscape — 3D Map of the Grand Canal

Venice is unlike any other city on earth. Built on 118 islands in a shallow lagoon at the head of the Adriatic, connected by 177 canals and more than 400 bridges, it has no roads, no cars and no parallel in the history of urbanism. The Grand Canal — the city's great reverse-S waterway, lined with over 170 palaces spanning six centuries of Venetian architecture — is its spine, its high street and its defining image all at once.

This model follows the Grand Canal at 1:5000 scale from the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in the south to the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi in the north, capturing the full sweep of the canal's double curve through the heart of the city. Cast in white resin and mounted in an oak frame, Venice is the cityscape where the blue water option makes the most compelling case — the canal and surrounding lagoon rendered in blue transforms the model into something immediately and unmistakeably Venetian.

The area

The model stretches from the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute — the great 17th-century Baroque church built as a votive offering after Venice's deliverance from the plague of 1630, its distinctive domed silhouette anchoring the southern entrance to the Grand Canal — northward to the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi, one of the finest Renaissance palaces on the canal, now home to the Venice Casino. Between them, the Grand Canal traces its characteristic reverse-S through the frame, its banks lined with palaces in Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles — a continuous procession of facades that reflects every era of Venetian wealth and ambition from the 13th to the 18th century. The Rialto Bridge, the oldest and most celebrated of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal, crosses the canal near the centre of the frame. The dense network of smaller canals, campos and alleyways that fill the spaces between the Grand Canal's curves completes one of the most intricate and rewarding urban patterns in the range.

Options and finish

• Frame: Oak frame, available in light or dark stain
• Acrylic case: Optional
• Canal and lagoon: Standard white or optional blue finish — highly recommended for this model
• Display: Hanging system included — display vertically on a wall or horizontally on a desk or tabletop
• Scale: 1:5000

For more on how our cityscapes are made — the satellite data, the process, the thinking behind them — see our 3D cityscape art guide.