The square of San Marco and its Basilica

Author: Serena

Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark Square) is very often defined as “the most beautiful parlour in the world”: this square is surrounded by many palaces and porches where you can find several cafés and shops. Visiting this trapezoidal square you can admire some of the most important and famous buildings of Venice.

Piazza San Marco by night

In particular here you can see: the San Marco Basilica, the Watch Tower (Torre Dell’Orologio), the Old Procuratie, the Napoleonic Area, the New Procuaratie, the Marciana Library and the Ducal Palace (Palazzo Ducale). At the middle of the square there is the most famous bell tower of the city.

These buildings represented all the bureaucratic structure of Venice.

The San Marco bell tower was built during the Middle Age even if it was totally completed during the XVIth century.

During the XVIth century there was the construction of the Watch Tower that completed the structure of the Old Procuratie.

The Sansoviana Library was built during the XVIth century and became the seat of the Marciana Library where there are inestimable literary works and manuscripts.

The New Procuratie were built during the XVIIth century and they are placed in front of the Old Procuratie. Here there is the famous Florian Café that where many writers of the XIXth and XXth century were used to spend their free time.

The Napoleonic Area where built at the end of the XVIIIth century to unify the two Pretorie.

Surely, the most important monument in this square is the Basilica of San Marco: this is a real masterpiece of the Romanesque-Byzantine architecture and it has always played a fundamental role in the religious and public life of Venice. This monuments is the result of the mix between the western cultures and the eastern one symbolizing the function carried out by the Venice Republic in the ancient world.

San Marco Basilica

According to tradition, this Basilica was built to hedge in the memorabilia of San Marco who is the patron saint of the city and so his symbol, the lion, became also the symbol of Venice.

Thanks to the continuous alternation of Romanesque and oriental features that characterizes its mosaics, decorations, marbles, and columns this basilica is a sublime artistic work.

The basilica dominates the square with its five imposing domes and its gold mosaics. This church base has the shape of a Greek cross with a central dome. The façade is divided in a double sequence of five arches characterized by mosaics and bas-relieves.

Once inside the basilica you will be surprised by the magnificence and the harmony of its structure. The internal walls of this church are ornamented with golden mosaics dating back to various historical periods (from the XIIth to the XIVth century) and representing various religious personages and situations. The main marble altar hedges in the San Marco memorabilia. Beside this altar there is the Byzantine gold art masterpiece: the “Pala d’oro”.