Briccola is an outdoor bench made from the briccole of the Venice lagoon. A briccola (in Venetian, "bricoła") is a navigation structure used to mark the waterways in the lagoons of Venice, Marano and Grado: it consists of two or more large wooden piles bound together and driven into the seabed. In international nautical terminology, the same structure is also called duc d'Albe, dolphin, or dalben.
In a port setting, briccole — meaning mooring or hauling posts — can be made of steel and concrete, and are called "mooring dolphins" when fitted with mooring hooks, or "breasting" or "berthing dolphins" when fitted with fenders for ships to come alongside.
In the lagoon setting, a briccola differs from a single mooring pole (palina) both in form — it has multiple piles, while a palina has just one — and in function: it primarily marks the route, while the palina is used for mooring boats. Its purpose is to signal to boats the boundary of the deepest, safely navigable part of the lagoon, guiding them along the route and preventing them from running aground in shallow-water areas. Signage or direction markers can be installed on the briccole.
In Venice, a distinctive briccola made up of five piles with a taller central pile is called a "dama": this type of briccola is used to mark the start of a lagoon channel.
