In 742 the capital had been moved from Eraclea to Metamauco and then, in 812, the Doge Agnello Perticiago moved the capital to the small islands of Rialto for security motives.
Construction was started on his residence on the Canal Grande, a kind of fortress whose original nucleus later developed into what we now call the Doge’s Palace .
The same year the first Venetian currency was coined: the silver dinar .

In 828, the remains of St. Mark that had been stolen in Alexandria (Egypt) by two Venetian merchants, were transferred to Venice and marked the beginning of the indissoluble link between Venice and this saint. A new basilica was dedicated to St. Mark, patron saint of the new city, and consecrated in 1094.
Along with other government buildings, St. Mark’s Basilica became known as the “Civitas Rivoalti” and continued to called so until the 14th Century when it began to be referred to as Venice (up to that point, the term ‘Venice’ had been used for the entire territory of the Venetian State).

Rialto thus became the administrative and religious centre of the city, protected on one side by a wall that connected Santa Maria Zobenigo to the castle of Olivolo in the area now known as Castello and, on the other side, by a giant iron chain used to control the passage and mooring of merchant ships.

400 - 1000 - - rev. 0.1.8