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The Carnival of Venice is a traditional Italian festival dating from the Middle Ages, which had its heyday in the XVIII century, when the whole town turned into a giant costume ball. It was interrupted for a time during the XX century before coming back in its present form, not so long ago, in 1979.

The Carnival of Venice takes place each year between late February and early March, more precisely during the twelve days before Shrove Tuesday. Many Venetian-inspired carnivals are also held in France every year between late February and mid-April, the main ones in: Annecy, Remiremont, Verdun, Rosheim, Corbeil-Essonnes, Paris.

In 1094 the carnival was already mentioned in a charter of the Doge Vital Faliero de Doni, but its official origin dates from 1269, when the Senate declared that the day before Lent should be regarded as a day of celebration for the whole city.

Behind a mask and borrowed clothes, nobles and commoners could mix again. The bauta, the traditional costume drawn from the commedia dell'arte, comprises the tabarro, the larva and the tricorn hat — or else the harlequin mask. That diamond-patterned costume was far from elegant in the XVI century: it simply stood for a beggar's patched rags. These disguises let every Venetian, whatever their station, take part in the festivities.

The carnival was banned at the end of the XVIII century, as soon as Napoleon brought down the republic. Yet it was during that century that it had known a real apotheosis, turning the city into a giant costume ball. It was under Austrian rule that the Carnival was allowed again; Venice then became Italian once more in 1866, but economic crisis and emigration got the better of its splendour.

Its revival was orchestrated by the municipality in the late 1970s, and quickly made it one of the best known carnivals in the world. The atmosphere and the costumes have changed, though: the mask once let its wearer forget reality and disappear into the crowd, where today it draws the tourists and sets its wearer apart from an anonymous one. Each year the masks of the carnival gather on the Gothic main gallery of the Doge's Palace for a few days of celebration, which tourists from all over the world flock to.