Biennale

It's one of the world's oldest and biggest art shows. In odd numbered years, the Giardini Pubblici and Arsenale and other venues around Venice fill up with the exhibitions of the Biennale, which continues to grow like topsy. And in the years in between, it puts on an Architectural Biennale.

In 1893, the Venice city council voted to hold an art exhibition to promote contemporary Italian art in honour of the silver anniversary of the reign king Umberto I and Queen Margherita di Savoia. Two years later, the first Biennale took place in a pavillion quickly erected in the Giardini Pubblici, with their majesties in attendance. Over 200,000 other art lovers showed up as well, partly thanks to special return train tickets with free admission to the show.

It was such a success that it was decided to award a Critics' Prize two years later, to admit uninvited painters and sculptors who passed a jury selection. The winners of the competition would be purchased for Venice's new Museo d'Arte Moderna.