The growth of the town of Dolo is due to the gradual downsizing of the maritime power of Venice which was historically oriented towards Dalmatia, the Aegean Sea and the Middle East, which occurred concurrently with the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic expansion and the new opening of navigation routes to the Americas.

At the beginning of the 15th century, documents testify to the existence of a village which, developing, gave rise to the economic importance of Dolo, always linked to the presence of its water mills collecting wheat from the nearby agricultural lands and then grinding the flour and embarking some into cargo boats pulled by horses along the banks of the Brenta Canal to the lagoon, from where they continued directly up to the Venice island settlement.

Drinking water, too, was carried from Dolo to the centre of Venice by cargo boats with big barrels filled directly from the springs of the little river Seriola.

The purpose of these megalithic hydraulic works was primarily to prevent the progressive flooding of the lagoon by the freshwater of the rivers and thus maintain a high degree of salinity necessary to make possible the navigation and the very existence of Venice.

A boat, called the Burchiello, transported Venetian noblemen directly to the Riviera sailing along the river Brenta, which was considered a natural extension of the Grand Canal, to spend the summer in the villas.