Bucintoro (Bucentaur)

The Doge's state barge, the Bucintoro (often anglicized to Bucentaur) was an essential ingredient of Venice's pagentry and myth. It played a starring role in the annual La Sensa, celebrating Venice's marriage to the sea, but was also used whenever the Republic wanted to impress a VIP.

The origin of the name has been lost in time. Some say it refers to the ship Centaurus in the Aeniad but was named Bicentauris because it was twice as big and grand. Renaissance Venetian historian Francesco Sansovino said according to documents from 1293, it was based on a grand medieval ship from the Arsenale called the Navilium Duecentorum Hominum ('Of Two Hundred Naval Men', perhaps because it took that many men to service it).