Saint Mark’s Square as Contested Political Space: Protesting Cruise Tourism in Venice

Abstract

Saint Mark’s Square is unquestionably the most famous tourist attraction in Venice, a piazza characterised by its complex history, unique aesthetics and many allusions to power (given its proximity to the Doge’s Palace and Saint Mark’s Basilica). This square is the largest open space in the city and while it is routinely crowded with tourists from all over the world, political demonstrations have been prohibited since 1997. This article explores Saint Mark’s Square as a contested political space by focusing on the many local struggles against cruise tourism in Venice and its lagoon. Instead of constituting an ‘apolitical’ space, the preferred uses given to the square by local authorities and tourism stakeholders are manifestly ‘political’, producing a space of leisure and consumption that benefits the economic logic behind the ‘normal’ functioning of the piazza. Other alternative social and political uses of the square are not only discouraged but banned, which brings into discussion the Lefebvrian notion of the right to the city: who has access to the centre as a (political) privileged space? The article examines protest acts undertaken by the collective No Grandi Navi, particularly the political events that took place after the MSC Opera collision with another tourist vessel and the dock in June 2019.