Barbarigo, Agostino

Barbarigo House was considered one of the most influential and wealthy in Venice. The family had extensive possessions in Crete , in Verona and Treviso . In addition to two Doges, Agostino and Marco Barbarigo , many prosecutors and cardinals also left the family. The clan Barbarigo ceased to exist in the middle of the XVIII century .

In 1486, Agostino Barbarigo became a doge after his brother Marco Barbarigo , who ruled for only a year. The appointment of the brother of the deceased doge caused a stormy reaction of the population. In the election, Agostino opposed diplomat and writer Bernardo Giustiniani, a representative of the old families of the republic, which gave rise to intrigue and tension.

Agostino Barbarigo was described as an elegant, cheerful, in some way even frivolous person. But not these qualities characterized him as a ruler, but a sober, calculating mind and a heightened sense of patriotism. Barbarigo made any sacrifices, at least if they had to sacrifice someone else, in order to preserve the power of the republic. To this end, he carefully monitored everything that happened at various royal courts of Europe, since his agents provided him with complete information.

In 1495 , he created an anti-French coalition to expel King Charles VIII from Italy, which was achieved after the Battle of Fornovo during the First Italian War . During the reign of Agostino, Venice tried to capture strongholds in Romagna and Puglia . In 1489, the island of Cyprus was finally annexed to the republic, when the Venetian Katerina Kornaro donated her kingdom to the republic.

In 1501, Doge Agostino Barbarigo approved the decision of the Council of Ten that anyone who “dares to somehow damage the public dam, lay a pipe underground to drain water, or contrary to the plan to deepen and expand the channels ... cut off his right hand, tear out his left eye and confiscate all property. ”

War with the Turks (1499-1503)

Since the beginning of Barbarigo’s reign, relations with Sultan Bayazid II , the successor of Mehmed II , have remained friendly and warm, but difficulties began in 1492 . The Sultan intercepted the encrypted letters that the Venetian ambassador in Istanbul sent to his government, and ordered him to leave the country within three days.

The severance of diplomatic relations quickly grew into an open war. All Venetian merchants in Istanbul were arrested ( 1499 ); Bosnians entered Dalmatia and went to the gates of Zadar .

The two warring fleets met in the waters of Pylos at the Battle of Zonchio . While the outcome of the battle remained unclear, Lepanto fell at the hands of the Ottomans. In June 1499 , the sultan personally besieged Modon : the city bravely defended itself, but after a few weeks surrendered. As soon as they entered the city, the Ottomans mercilessly slaughtered the entire population. Soon Koroni was captured.

It was a heavy blow for the Republic of Venice , which thus gradually lost its ports on the way to the Levant.

The war lasted another four years; the world of 1503 confirmed the republic’s loss of fortresses and Lefkada : Venice no longer controlled the Peloponnese , as did Nafplion , Patras and Monemvasia .

End of the reign of Barbarigo

Agostino Barbarigo died on September 20, 1501 . However, the doge's propensity for nepotism (nepotism), accusations of a secret agreement with the Duke of Milan and theft led to a check of his financial situation. In the same year, a procedure was developed for posthumously bringing the doge to justice and compensation for damage caused to the republic. The heirs of Barbarigo were obliged to pay the state 76,000 gold ducats .

In 1488, in the church of Santa Maria della Carita Agostino, he was engaged in the construction of a magnificent tomb for himself and his brother Marco . Giovanni Bellini received an order for four large triptychs for the tomb. The doge was buried in it. However, in 1807, the tomb was almost completely destroyed by the French.

Under Agostino Barbarigo, construction work began, adorning St. Mark's Square with some structures, which to this day are one of the main attractions of the square: in 1494, the clock tower was laid, and two years later - the Prosecutor's Office .

February 1, 1499 , the Doge held a grand opening of the tower clock. In front of the winged lion (symbol of Venice), a statue of a doge kneeling was placed. The composition occupied a prominent place on the facade of the tower. But with the arrival of Napoleon in the city in 1797 , the statue was removed as a symbol of the former power. At the same time, the tomb of Barbarigo was also destroyed.

Agostino Barbarigo appears in the computer game Assassin's Creed II , as well as in the Facebook game Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy , whose plot explains that Agostino was also corrupt, like his brother, so he was poisoned by Assassins. ^[one]

• Turkish-Venetian War (1499-1503)
• Italian wars

• Gaeta, Franco . Agostino Barbarigo in Dizionario Biografico .
• venipedia.it