Saint Mark's Basilica
The Origin of the Basilica di San Marco
The Basilica di San Marco was originally built in the 9th century to house the relics of the Evangelist St. Mark, stolen in 828 in Alexandria, by an expedition that was mandated by the Doge Giustiniano Participazio of Venice. This basilica, located in St. Mark’s Square and adjoining the Doge’s Palace, was intended to rival the one in Rome which would house the relics of St. Peter.
The history of Saint Mark’s relics.
Angel : Do you know that the bones of Saint Mark, stolen from his tomb, were brought back from Alexandria to Venice by two merchants, or pseudo merchants?
Oriane : Yes, and they did not hesitate to hide them in a basket containing pork meat!
Angel : Why pork and not lamb or beef ? Did Saint Mark prefer Italian pork sausages to merguez?
Oriane : Not at all! Besides, it wasn’t sausages, it was slices of salted bacon. Quite clever when hiding relics from Muslim customs officers who wouldn’t risk searching the load!
If you are visiting St. Mark’s Basilica to pray in front of the bones of the holy man, you are wrong!
You will see pieces of bones when you visit the treasury, but not those of the evangelist. These were returned in 1968 by Pope Paul VI to put an end to a quarrel between the Latin Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, heir to the Eastern Church founded in Egypt by Saint Mark.
So, this sarcophagus is actually empty! If you really want to honor the Holy Apostle with your visit, you will have to make the trip to Cairo!
The first basilica was destroyed in 976 in the fire of the Doge’s Palace, then rebuilt in the 11th century.
Its layout, in the shape of a Greek Cross, is of Byzantine inspiration, based on the model of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.
It has been enriched over the centuries to become a true masterpiece mixing Byzantine, Islamic, Gothic, and Renaissance influences.
The first basilica was destroyed in 976 in the fire of the Doge’s Palace, then rebuilt in the 11th century.
Its layout, in the shape of a Greek Cross, is of Byzantine inspiration, based on the model of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.
It has been enriched over the centuries to become a true masterpiece mixing Byzantine, Islamic, Gothic, and Renaissance influences.
Saint Mark’s Basilica, in addition to being a magnificent exhibition of mosaics, is a bit of an Ali Baba’s cave, since it contains many treasures acquired and stolen over the centuries.
For example, the relics include: a vial of the blood of Christ, a piece of the stick on which the Holy Sponge was fixed, a piece of fabric which were used to wash feet, hair of the virgin, the sword of St Peter with which it cut off Malchus’ ear.
But also, gold, precious stones, marble… The bronze horses, preserved inside, and whose replicas are enthroned above the portal, were also stolen from Constantinople!
Among all the treasures contained in the Basilica, the richest, the Pala d’Oro, was on the other hand made by the goldsmiths of Constantinople for the Doge Pietro Orseolo in 978.
The Facade of Saint Mark’s Basilica
When you stand in front of the basilica’s facade, you wonder if you have not been teleported out of Italy!
Byzantine domes, Egyptian marble walls… In fact, besides being richly decorated, its multiple inspirations make it completely unique.
We admire 5 arched portals, separated by marble columns, surmounted by richly carved arches and decorated with beautiful colorful mosaics.
Angel : Let us look for a moment at the decoration of the left portal: it represents Saint Mark’s body entering the church.
Oriane : It is the oldest mosaic on this facade! It dates back to 1270. The same scene is represented more to the right, this time from the XVIIth century.
How can I visit Saint Mark’s Basilica?
Visiting the Basilica di San Marco, Practical Information
Visiting the Basilica di San Marco, Practical Information
Visiting Saint Mark’s Basilica is free, but visiting certain points of interest within it does cost money.
You can easily spend an hour in line waiting to get into the Basilica.
You will have to pay and wait in line again to access the Pala d’Oro (2€), the Treasury (3€) and the loggias upstairs with the view from the balconies and the museum of San Marco (5€).
We recommend you use the Basilica’s skip-the-line tickets.
There are no audio guides available and little information is displayed, which is why we advise you pay for a guided tour and a skip-the-line ticket.
Photos are forbidden, and those who take pictures are asked to leave by the guards.
As in any religious place, modest dress (knees and shoulders covered, therefore no tank tops or skirts) and silence are to be respected.
Open from 9:45 am to 4:45 pm from Monday to Saturday and from 2:00 pm to 4:45 pm on Sundays and holidays. Please be aware of mass times.
Bags are not allowed, there is a free luggage storage room (but limited to 1 hour) in a small street on the left at 200m (indicated by signs).
Our advice for visiting the Basilica di San Marco:
The disadvantages are the crowds and the difficulty to quickly understand all the historical and cultural aspects of St. Mark’s Basilica.
In order to avoid the line and to benefit from a guided tour in English, we have selected the following skip-the-line tickets with an English-speaking guide:
Thousands of square meters of colored and golden mosaics
The interior of Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice is entirely covered with mosaics!
They are multicolored but gold is the dominant color to remind visitors of god’s light.
Already before entering the nave, on each side of the main door, you can see the oldest mosaics that date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, and represent episodes from the Old Testament.
In particular, the dome of the Creation on the right describes, when you read it counter-clockwise, the stages of the genesis with Adam and Eve and then the flood and Noah’s Ark.
As you move through the nave, you are plunged into the New Testament with the apostles and the Virgin Mary, Pentecost, the Ascension, and details of the lives of the apostles that I would not presume to interpret here.
Angel : It is magnificent! What light! How do these mosaics reflect the light so much?
Oriane : It is the type of mosaic that allows it. Unlike most mosaics, the tesserae that constitute them are not made of stone but of glass!
Colored glass is used for the colored parts, and a sheet of precious metal is sandwiched between two layers of colorless glass for the gold and silver parts.
To accentuate the light and reflections offered by the combination of glass and metal, the artists have played with the angles and with layering.
Angel : Clever and successful! Being bedazzled by a church’s light is an unprecedented experience!
The Pavement
But it is not enough to visit Saint Mark’s with your nose in the air, you must also be interested in the pavement that you walk on throughout the visit.
It is made of marble and stones of all colors and draws geometric forms, circles, rosettes, triangles, spirals, stars, rhombuses… with dazzling mathematical precision!
And the most astonishing thing is that it is not only about flat geometrical drawings, but also about optical illusions and relief effects created by gradient colors.
Oriane : If I had been given this kind of drawing to build at school, I am sure I would have liked geometry more!
Angel : Yes but at the time, you were already blonde, right?
Behind the altar, near the Pala d’Oro, there is a special stone.
It shows a heart with a Doge’s hat or “corno dogale” on top of a hedgehog, the symbol of the Erizzo family.
This is the precise location where the heart of Doge Francesco Erizzo was buried according to his will.
Byzantine art, marble or carved columns, statues...
When you are in the Basilica di San Marco, you don’t know where to look because there are so many details to discover.
The marble iconostasis, (separation between the nave and the heart) and decorated with statues is magnificent, as well as the high altar surmounted by 4 columns of sculpted alabaster, behind which hides the famous golden altarpiece, the Pala d’Oro.
The Pala d'Oro (entrance 2€)
It is a golden altarpiece of almost 3.5 meters wide and 1.4 meters high, inlaid with more than 1900 precious stones and 80 enamels.
Commissioned in 976 by the Doge, it was made by Byzantine goldsmiths and then enriched over the centuries by Greek and Venetian artists until it reached its current appearance in the mid-fourteenth century.
Each enamel represents an apostle, an angel, a prophet, an illustration from the Bible or a scene from life in Venice.
The Treasure (entrance 3€)
Angel : Let’s have a treasure hunt?
Oriane : Ok, but everything here is in the same room; it won’t be too hard!
In addition to the relics of Saints or Doges in their velvet boxes, you can find numerous chalices more or less richly decorated, icons, incense burners, gold swords and precious stones…
A whole Ali Baba loot returned from Constantinople, especially during the 4th crusade around 1200. The master pieces? The incense burner, the icon of the Archangel Michael, and the golden chalice.
Not to be missed: The Museum of San Marco in the loggias upstairs (entrance 5€)
It would be a pity not to go up, if only to admire the view on Saint Mark’s Square between the legs of Saint Mark’s famous horses.
Oriane : Do you know that these horses are replicas?
Angel : Yes but the real ones are there, in the museum… They were recovered in 1815 by Venice after they were loaned to Napoleon who exposed them in Paris on the Arc de Triomphe. The ones in Paris are also replicas!
Oriane : They are traveling horses… Could we borrow them for a few weeks for the terrace of our apartment, just the time it takes to produce other replicas?
Angel : Yea yeahh,… Do you have other good ideas like that ? Instead of raving, look at this view! Piazza San Marco, that’s the real thing! The Palazzo Ducale too!
Oriane : It’s really beautiful!
Angel : Yes… This terrace was reserved for the Doges and their relatives to attend Venetian parties and ceremonies that took place in Saint Mark’s Square!
In this museum, besides the real bronze horses you can see fragments of mosaics from the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.
In particular those that show Abraham with an outraged expression, eyebrows raised, because of the legendary gossip of the Venetians!
Recently renovated mosaics are on display in this museum while waiting to be returned to their original place; this is an opportunity to see them up close.
You can also admire the magnificent mosaics on the walls and domes of the Basilica.
The banquet hall of the Doge is also worth a visit!
Most visitors to Venice do not know the significance of the 3 masts in front of the basilica.
In fact they corresponded to the 3 kingdoms conquered by the Doges in the course of history: Cyprus, Crete (then called Candia), and the Peloponnese (ancient Morea).
At the time of Napoleon, its symbols, which were disturbing because they could be assimilated to the tyranny associated with his conquests, were replaced by the symbols of Liberty, Virtue, and Equality.
To learn more you can check out the Basilica di San Marco website in Italian.
