Giardini della Biennale

This guide to the Giardini della Biennale in Venice traces the story of the world's oldest contemporary art exhibition, from Napoleon's draining of this marshland in the early 1800s to the national pavilions that rose among the trees. It follows Germany's pavilion in particular, first built in 1909 and rebuilt in 1938 under Hitler's orders into a starker, more imposing structure. You'll hear about the architect behind that rebuild, and about an artist decades later who confronted what the building represented. Stand among the plane trees and look for the marble underfoot.