If we talk about sports in the Lagoon, we immediately think of football and basketball, Venezia and Reyer. However, since its origins, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Venetian sporting realities involved many other sports. The foundation of the Italian Gymnastics Federation by Pietro Gallo, Domenico Pisoni and Costantino Reyer dates back to 1869, which anticipated by three years the birth of the Venetian Gymnastics Society named after Costantino Reyer with headquarters in Palazzo Diedo in Cannaregio.
Over the years, various sports disciplines have been practiced, from fencing, rowing, rowing, athletics, football, basketball to boxing, wrestling and weightlifting. And it is precisely from an offshoot of Costantino Reyer’s Society together with the Martial Gym of Venice that, in 1907, the Venezia FBC was born.
The journalist and photographer Alessandro Rizzardini, the historian Michele Gottardi and Claudio Bonamano, vice-president of the Panathlon Venice. The conversation will be enriched by the projection of rare period images. Participation by reservation at [email protected]. (in the opening photo: athletes at the Martial Gym of Venice, autumn 1907 in the courtyard of what will become the A. Diaz school.
It should be kept in mind that basketball made its first appearance in the city and in Italy in 1907 with a demonstration in S. Elena by a women’s team from Mens Sana Siena. Swimming also has a long tradition – already practiced by Querini and Reyer at Zattere and Giudecca, later at Passoni alle Zattere and at the outdoor swimming pool of the Dopolavoro Ferroviario in Santa Chiara in the Grand Canal – rowing by the Canottieri Bucintoro founded in 1882 and the Canottieri Querini (1901) and even cycling, starting from the Veloce Club Veneziano – founded on 25 February 1894. And certainly something is forgotten.
