AI-generated image supposedly shows underwater foundation of Venice

Venice presented an early architectural challenge, being located in the marshy lagoons of Italy.

An image purporting to show the underwater infrastructure supporting the canal-carved city of Venice, Italy, circulated across social media platforms in March 2025, including Threads, Facebook, and Instagram.

One such post (archive) published on X on March 15 had received more than 1.2 million views at the time of this writing:

An image claims to show that Venice, Italy is built on wood.

(@BrianRoemmele/X)

Despite Venice's impressive architectural history, the image at the source of this fact check was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and doesn't accurately represent the "Most Serene" city's underwater landscape.

The online AI-detection tool Hive Moderation determined the image was 99.7% "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content." Google's AI image detection app similarly determined that the picture was 93% likely to have been "generated by AI." Both results can be seen in the screenshots below:

(Snopes compilation, Hive Moderation and Google AI image detector)

The image also displays signs of AI generation when enlarged, such as the unnatural shaping of the wood and how the posts appear to blend into the wooden mounds along the bottom, as shown in the magnified portions below.

(X/@BrianRoemmele)

Similarly, the above-water portion of the image also shows clear indications of having been created using AI. For example, the building on the left appears to have changing patterns, while the dome-shaped construction on the right has warped features that appear to melt into one another.

((X/@BrianRoemmele))

Although the illustration misrepresents what the actual foundations of the city look like, it's true the substructure of Venice was initially built mainly of wood. The University of Washington Exploration Seminar Engineering Rome covers Roman and Italian engineering over 3,000 years, from ancient Rome to the 21st century. A 2024 article published by the group noted that Venice was constructed largely of large timber poles that were driven into the "Venetian Lagoon's soft, marshy soil, which lacked load-bearing capacity." The group added:

The Venetians collected large timber piles from the forests of Croatia and drove them deep into the islands of the lagoon. These piles had varying diameters from 10 to 25 cm and heights from less than 1 m to a maximum of 3.5 m, with around nine piles driven into the ground per square meter. Oak, pine, alder, larch, and elm were the primary woods used for these piles due to their durability and resistance to decay.

PBS' science series NOVA also explained this unique construction in a 2022 documentary, "How Venice Was Built on a Swamp."

Snopes has debunked many viral AI-generated images. For more information on how to spot these fakes in the wild, read this explainer.