Shipbuilding is the ancestral tradition of Venice, it was responsible for the bulk of Venice Republic's naval power during its eleven centuries of history, untill the 18th Century, and it is, still now, an important part of the economy of the City.
During the 12th century, the Republic of Venice started the construction of the Arsenal, a complex of state-owned shipyards and armories clustered together, it became the largest industrial complex in Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution, spanning an area of about fifteen percent of the City.