A gondola is built by eye, without drawings. The hull is set up over a cantier, a wooden counter mould fixed to the floor of a boatyard called a squero, and every rib is cut away from the boat against a notched jig. The two boards that carry the sides come from one oak trunk about 11.5 m long (Caniato, 2022, pp. 200, 207).

Most gondolas afloat today are not planked. Until the 1990s builders curved solid planks with the heat of fire and fresh water and fixed them with nails. At the end of the 1990s one boatbuilder began using marine plywood, which made the boats faster, easier and cheaper to produce (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749). The municipal regulation allows it: the frame has to be solid wood, while for the hull and bottom the use of suitable wooden materials is also accepted (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749).

This page follows the build from the seasoning of the oak to the caulking of the seams, lists the woods and the trades involved, sets out what the rule says and how the city council settled the plywood question in 2007, and says where the plank method can still be seen.

How is a gondola made?

A gondola is made in a squero, a yard whose working parts are a beaten-earth slipway sloping into the water, for launching and hauling boats out, and a teza, a wooden shed on brick piers with plank walls that can be removed. Yards of this kind were called squeri da sotil, because they built and repaired gondolas and other small craft. The squeri da grosso, on the edge of the city, built the large wooden cargo boats (Caniato, 2022, p. 201).

Inside, the work starts on the cantier, a wooden counter mould anchored to the ground and to the beams above it. It holds the curve of the bottom and of the two end posts, and the position of every rib is marked on it. The three master ribs go on first, beginning with the one nearest the stern, and the heights of the two sides are marked on them (Caniato, 2022, p. 207).

The ribs themselves are prepared away from the boat. Each is made of three pieces, cut against a jig called the sesto da corbame, perfected at the end of the nineteenth century. Marks along its edge give the falling curvature of each rib, and a second row of marks lower down gives its angle, so no two ribs in a gondola are the same (Caniato, 2022, p. 208). There are no plans on paper. The jig and the counter mould carry the shape, and both were handed down inside the yard along with the trade.

Building a gondola, step by stepThe order of work in a squero, from seasoning the oak to caulking the seams.
  1. Season the oakThe trunk is cut into boards and stacked with gaps so air reaches every face.
  2. Set up the cantierThe counter mould is fixed to the ground and the beams, with each rib position marked on it.
  3. Fix the master ribsThe three master ribs go on first, starting with the one nearest the stern.
  4. Cut the ribs to the sestoEach rib is made in three pieces against the notched jig, no two alike.
  5. Bend the serci hotThe oak side boards are softened with water and a fire of marsh reeds.
  6. Plank and close the bottomSide planking and the trasti go in, then fir boards close the bottom.
  7. Press in the cavalinThe hull is turned over and propped so that it takes its saddle curve.
  8. Caulk, then carveTarred oakum is driven into the seams and sealed, and a carver adds the pattern if the owner wants one.

Source: Caniato, G. (2022).

What wood is a gondola made of?

The boat begins with one tree. The two serci, the load-bearing boards that run the whole length of each side, are cut about 2.2 cm thick from the middle boards of a trunk. For a good result that oak trunk should be about 11.5 m long and around 40 cm across, with one face as straight as possible and the other slightly curved (Caniato, 2022, p. 207).

The rest of the boat is a short list. Larch and fir go into the planking, cherry into the trasti that tie the two sides together, and elm, mahogany and walnut are used elsewhere (Caniato, 2022, p. 200). The stem and stern posts are taken from a single board of elm, sometimes oak, cut from a trunk with a natural elbow close to the shape wanted, so that the post needs no joint (Caniato, 2022, p. 208). Once all the ribs, the side planking and the trasti are in place, the bottom is closed with fir boards (Caniato, 2022, p. 208).

Timber is judged before any of this. Boards are rejected for irregular grain, loose structure, knots, radial splits or rot and mould inside, none of which is always visible to the eye, and selecting them in the timber country upstream was part of the builder's trade (Caniato, 2022, p. 200).

Why each gondola is built for one rower

A gondola is not a standard product. When the hull is turned over and pressed into its saddle curve, called the sentina or cavalin, the builder has to allow for the requirements and weight of the gondolier who ordered the boat and for the weight of the bow iron (Caniato, 2022, p. 208). To put the curve in, props are forced between the upturned bottom and the shed beams and worked in gradually at the ends, while the oak serci are wetted and heated to soften them (Caniato, 2022, p. 208).

The two sources give the bow iron differently. Caniato puts it at 6 or 7 kg up to 20 kg and more (Caniato, 2022, p. 208), while Camuffo gives the modern iron as 12 to 15 kg (Camuffo, 2023, para. 117).

The shape that comes out of the yard is deliberately lopsided. The left side is longer and wider than the right, set against the weight of the iron at the bow, which counterbalances the rower on the stern: the boat runs level when it is loaded and leans when it is empty. The technique was developed in the twentieth century, and each hull is dimensioned for the load of its owner-rower (Camuffo, 2023, para. 117). A modern gondola measures about 10.9 to 11 m long, 142 cm wide and 65 cm deep in the hull (Camuffo, 2023, para. 116, 119). The boat is balanced only when one particular gondolier is rowing it (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 747).

Why are some gondolas made of marine plywood?

Until the 1990s gondolas were mostly produced from solid wooden planks of different sizes and types. The planks for the hull and deck were curved with the heat of fire and fresh water and attached with nails. At the end of the 1990s a boatbuilder experimented with marine plywood, which made production faster, easier and cheaper, and the difference in materials caused no concern at first (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749).

Gondoliers, who buy the boats, came round to it. One told the researchers that planks crack open and let the water in and need constant sealing, while plywood dries faster when the boat is put on the ground and is always ready (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749). The builder's own argument was about supply. Planks are difficult to find, in his words the firs are sick and the oaks are gone, and plastic hulls were one step away, so plywood was a way to keep the boats wooden and still make each one to measure (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, pp. 749-750).

Other materials changed with it. Tarred oakum and hot pitch have gone out of use, partly because health rules would bar molten pitch. Glues and resins that did not exist thirty years ago are now used, stainless screws have largely replaced galvanised iron nails, and the old Venetian units of measure are going out of use with them (Caniato, 2022, p. 202).

What the rules say, and how the 2007 vote went

The municipality of Venice regulates gondolas and the gondoliers' profession, with particular attention to the preservation of traditions. A regulation approved in 1994 set out features of the boat including its size, colour and production method (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 748). The clause at the centre of the dispute states that the frame is made in solid wood, that for the hull and bottom the use of suitable wooden materials is also accepted, and that the construction must respect the measures, the forms and the traditional construction method of the cantier (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749). That is why a plywood hull is legal, and why the cantier method is itself part of the rule. Marine plywood arrived at the end of the 1990s, after the wording was written.

El Felze, an association of local artisans founded in 2002 to promote and safeguard the traditional production methods of the gondola and its accessories, asked the municipality to tighten the wording so that planks would be required. The question reached the city council in 2007, where boatbuilders, artisans, gondoliers' representatives and politicians debated it in three consecutive sessions, on 11 January, 18 January and 1 February 2007. In the third session the proposal was rejected, on the stated grounds that the matter required more debate. It was never discussed again at the council, and the wording on suitable wooden material stayed as it was (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 749).

How the plywood question was settledThe 1994 wording survived the only council debate the question ever had.
  1. 1994Municipal regulationSize, colour and production method set, with suitable wooden materials accepted for hull and bottom.
  2. Late 1990sMarine plywoodA boatbuilder starts using marine plywood, which is faster, easier and cheaper.
  3. 2002El Felze foundedArtisans organise to safeguard the traditional production methods.
  4. 11 Jan 2007First council sessionThe critique is put to the city council.
  5. 18 Jan 2007Second sessionBoatbuilders, artisans and gondoliers take part in the public debate.
  6. 1 Feb 2007Proposal rejectedThe council declines to require planks, and never returns to it.

Source: Trevisan, P., & Pareschi, L. (2026).

How many trades does one gondola pass through?

A single gondola requires more than eleven different kinds of skilled worker (Rossi, 2023, para. 7). The association that speaks for them lists the squerarioli who build the hull, the remeri who make the oars and forcole, the fondidori who cast the brass ornaments, the fravi who forge the ferro at the bow, the intagiadori who carve, the battiloro who beat gold into leaf, the indoradori who lay it on, the tapessieri who make the cushions, the bareteri who make the gondoliers' hats and caps, the calegheri who make their shoes and the sartori who make their clothes (Rossi, 2023, para. 9).

Not all of that work happens in the boatyard. The squerarioli prepare, cut and curve the wood and assemble the hull, the decorations and carvings come from other artisans, and the boat is then painted black. Gondoliers buy the oar and the forcola separately, from remeri (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 747).

The trades are organised. El Felze has promoted the crafts behind the boat since 2002, and in 2021 it received the Jeonju award for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, which carries a fund of 30,000 USD, alongside finalists from Nepal and Tajikistan (Rossi, 2023, para. 1, 3, 4). The sector is described as slowly losing ground to economic difficulty and to new technologies in the naval industry, and Italy has no national scheme recognising individual craftspeople as Korea, Japan and France do (Rossi, 2023, para. 6, 18, 19).

Where the plank method survives

During fieldwork in 2018 and 2019, one yard was still making gondolas from wooden planks: the Squero Tramontin in Dorsoduro. El Felze members kept the method in view with guided tours and seminars (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, pp. 747, 750). The researchers' conclusion is sober: the plank method was by then a minority practice, and its knowledge remained at risk of disappearing (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 751).

The yard's line is long: Domenico Tramontin, born in 1854, set up on his own at about thirty, in 1884. His grandson worked the yard for seventy years, from the early 1930s to 2004, with his father's and uncles' methods and tools unchanged, and the fourth generation died in November 2018 (Caniato, 2022, p. 200). On 9 October 2019 a local newspaper reported the yard was at risk (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 750, footnote 5).

The craft was filmed there between 1989 and 1991 for a national museum in Rome (Caniato, 2022, p. 202). El Felze also tried to have the craftsmanship recognised on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage in need of safeguarding (Trevisan & Pareschi, 2026, p. 750, footnote 4). Neither source records an inscription, so gondola making should not be called UNESCO listed.

The squero at San Trovaso still has its beaten-earth slipway and the plank-walled teza with living quarters above (Caniato, 2022, p. 201). The oldest gondola in the city, built in 1947 and named Laura, is at Ca Rezzonico (Camuffo, 2023, para. 120).