War of Chioggia The War of Chioggia ( ) was a conflict between Genoa and Venice which lasted from 1378 to 1381 , from which Venice emerged triumphant . It was a part of the Venetian - Genoese Wars . Background . The two maritime powers had long been leading commercial powers with ties to Constantinople that had nurtured their growth during the Dark Ages . Their rivalry over trade with the Levant had generated a number of wars . Genoa , having suffered previous defeats at the hands of the Venetians , had emerged from submission to the Visconti tyrants of Milan during the fourteenth century , although it had also been severely weakened by the Black Death of 1348 which took a toll of 40 , 000 on the city . Venice had dismembered the Byzantine Empire in 1204 and gradually taken over land on the Adriatic — bringing it into conflict with Hungary , and land within Italy — generating a rivalry with Padua . Allies . Genoa ' s allies included Hungary and Padua . The King of Hungary , Louis I , had conquered Dalmatia from Venice and by 1379 Hungarian forces threatened Venice itself by land from the north . Paduan forces , under Carraresi leadership ( Francesco I da Carrara ) , cut off Venice ' s communications to the west . Genoa ' s allies also included the Patriarch of Aquileia and Leopold III , the Duke of Austria . The danger on land seemed trifling to Venice so long as she could keep the sea open to her trade and press the war against the Genoese in the Levant . Venice ' s allies , which included Bernabò Visconti of Milan , gave her little help on this side , but his mercenaries invaded the territory of Genoa . His troops were however defeated in September 1379 in the Val Bisagno . Bernabò , whose despotism and taxes had enraged the Milanese , was deposed by his nephew Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1385 . Imprisoned in the castle of Trezzo , he was poisoned in December of that year . Venice had the support of John V Palaiologos , Byzantine Emperor . In 1376 , with Genoese help Andronikos IV had overthrown John V , but in 1379 Venice restored John to the throne . Tenedos . The war was primarily fought over control of the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea , and both sides supported different pretenders to the throne of the Byzantine Empire . Tenedos had been acquired by Venice from the Byzantine Empire in 1377 , but after this conflict , they ceded it to Savoy and evacuated it in 1381 . The Pope decided that the castle on Tenedos should be demolished , rather than be a source of contention between the two cities ; 4000 Greek islanders from Tenedos were resettled in Crete and Euboea . Cape d ' Anzio ( May 30 , 1378 ) . During the first stage of the war the plans of the senate were carried out with general success . While Carlo Zeno harassed the Genoese stations in the Levant , Vettor Pisani brought one of their squadrons to action on 30 May 1378 off Cape d ' Anzio to the south of the Tiber , and defeated it . The battle was fought in a gale by 10 Venetian against 11 Genoese galleys . The Genoese admiral , Luigi de ' Fieschi , was taken with 5 of his galleys , and others were wrecked . Four of the squadron escaped , and steered for Famagusta in Cyprus , then held by Genoa . If Pisani had directed his course to Genoa itself , which was thrown into a panic by the defeat at Anzio , it is possible that he might have dictated peace , but he thought his squadron too weak , and preferred to follow the Genoese galleys which had fled to Famagusta . Traù ( 1378 ) . Pisani returned to the Adriatic and with a fleet of 25 galleys destroyed the port of Sebenico ( Šibenik ) and headed towards Traù ( Trogir ) , where 22 Genoese galleys were found , commanded by Luciano Doria . Pisani attacked Traù , but the port , heavily fortified , resisted his attack . The Venetians , suffering damage themselves , withdrew to Venice . Battle of Pola ( May 7 , 1379 ) . The next spring ( 1379 ) the Venetians attempted to attack Traù again , but were repelled . During the summer of 1379 Pisani was employed partly in attacking Genoa in Cyprus , but mainly in taking possession of the Istrian and Dalmatian towns which supported the Hungarians from fear of the aggressive ambition of Venice . He was ordered to winter on the coast of Istria , where his crews suffered from exposure and disease . Genoa , having recovered from the panic caused by the disaster at Anzio , decided to attack Venice at home while the best of her ships were absent with Carlo Zeno . She sent a strong fleet into the Adriatic under Luciano Doria . Pisani had been reinforced early in the spring of 1379 , but when he was sighted by the Genoese fleet of 25 sail off Pola in Istria on the 7th of May , he was slightly outnumbered , and his crews were still weak . The Venetian admiral would have preferred to avoid battle , and to check an attack on Venice itself , by threatening the Genoese fleet from his base on the Istrian coast . He was forced into battle by the commissioner ( " proveditore " ) Michele Steno , who as agent of the senate had authority over the admiral . The Venetians were defeated with the loss of all their galleys except six . Luciano Doria fell in the battle , and the Genoese , who had suffered severely , did not at once follow up their success . When Pisani returned home , he was thrown into prison . However , he was later released when the city of Venice was threatened by the Genoese at the Battle of Chioggia . Lido and Brondolo ( July 1379 ) . On the arrival of Pietro Doria , with reinforcements , the Genoese appeared off the Lido , the outer barrier of the lagoon of Venice , in July , and in August they entered on a combined naval and military attack on the city , in combination with the Paduans under the Carraresi and the Hungarians . The Venetians had closed the passages through the outer banks except at the southern end , at the island of Brondolo , and the town of Chioggia . The barrier here approaches close to the mainland , and the position facilitated the co - operation of the Genoese with the Paduans and Hungarians , but Chioggia is distant from Venice , which could only be reached along the canals across the lagoon . The Venetians had taken up the buoys which marked the fairway , and had placed a light squadron on the lagoon . The allies soon occupied Brondolo . Battle of Chioggia ( August 1379 – June 1380 ) . This wider conflict takes its name from the fishing port town of Chioggia , which had a Venetian garrison of 3 , 000 men . The Genoese were reinforced by the Hungarians and Paduans , and suddenly and unexpectedly they attacked the south end of the lagoon , brought her fleet into the channels of the lagoon and , with her allies , stormed and captured Chioggia on 16 August 1379 . By mid - August 1379 the allies had Venice encircled . The Venetian senate applied for peace , but when the Genoese replied that they were resolved to " bit and bridle the Horses of Saint Mark " the Venetians decided to fight to the end . All Venetian reserves were mobilized and Vittor Pisani , imprisoned after the battle of Pola , was released by popular demand . During the night of 22 December 1379 , under cover of darkness , the doge of Venice Andrea Contarini and Pisani blockaded Chioggia . They thus cut off the occupying forces from both the Paduans and the Genoese fleet . After launching this diversionary attack on Chioggia , the Venetians managed to sink obstructions closing every channel by which the Genoese fleet might escape from the cul - de - sac at Chioggia . The Venetian galley fleet that had been on a raiding expedition in the Mediterranean reached the anchorage off Brondolo on January 1 , 1380 ; this fleet was under the command of Carlo Zeno , who had left on a plundering expedition before the battle of Pola and had been inflicting damage on Genoese trade in the Tyrrhenian and Aegean seas as far as Beirut and Rhodes . Zeno returned home in time to join the blockade of Chioggia . It was the Genoese who now were encircled . The attack on Genoese - held Chioggia was now pressed with vigour . The Genoese held out resolutely in the hope of relief from home . Months of skirmishes followed . The Genoese attempted to clear the barricades in the channels and the Venetians to defend them . Genoese also failed in an attempt to subdue the mercenaries employed by the Venetians who were besieging them . The heavy Genoese vessels were much hampered by the shallow water and intricate passages through the lagoon . By taking advantage of their embarrassment and his own local knowledge , Pisani carried out a series of movements which entirely turned the tables on the invaders . Pisani executed a succession of night attacks , during which he sank vessels laden with stores not only in the canals leading through the lagoon to Venice , but in the fairways leading from Chioggia to the open sea round both ends of the island of Brondolo . The Genoese were thus shut in at the very moment when they thought they were about to besiege Venice . Pisani stationed the galleys under his command in the open sea outside Brondolo , and during the rest of the year blockaded the enemy closely . The distress of the Venetians themselves was great , but the Doge Andrea Contarini and the nobles set an example by sharing the general hardships , and taking an oath not to return to Venice till they had recovered Chioggia . But the resources of Genoa had been taxed to fit out the squadrons she had already sent to sea . It was not until the 12th of May 1380 that her admiral , Matteo Maruffo , was able to reach the neighbourhood of Brondolo with a relieving force . By this time the Venetians had recovered the island , and their fleet occupied a fortified anchorage from which they refused to be drawn . Maruffo could do nothing , and on the 24th of June 1380 the defenders of Chioggia surrendered . The naval Battle of Chioggia took place on June 24 , 1380 in the lagoon off Chioggia , resulting in a victory for Venice . The Genoese , near starvation , surrendered and thus allowed the Venetians to regain control of the Adriatic . Peace of Turin ( 1381 ) . Through the mediation of the " Green Count " of Savoy , Amadeus VI , the two sides made a peace treaty at Turin . It gave no formal advantage to Genoa or Venice . But it spelled the end of their long competition : Genoese shipping was not seen in the Adriatic after Chioggia . This conflict saw the first use of shipborne cannon s in support of amphibious assault operations and perhaps against Genoese galleys . The conflict was nearly disastrous for both sides , and Genoa was certainly crippled . Genoa lost the naval ascendency that the city - state had enjoyed prior to the war . Venice might have suffered as badly , were it not for its admirals Vettor Pisani and Carlo Zeno . She regained her strength and continued to impressive maturity until her defeat by the League of Cambrai in 1508 .