Visit Basilica di San Marco

Visit Baslica di San Marco



The word “basilica” denotes the fact that a church houses the remains of a saint (or the partial remains, anyway), and in this case the saint in question is St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. His bones were brought to Venice in the 9th century, stolen from Egypt and intended to increase the importance of Venice even more. It worked. Of course, the Venetian thieves probably thought they were just fulfilling destiny by making off with Mark’s remains - a legend of the time said that an angel had appeared to Mark in a vision, telling him he would be laid to rest in Venice.

Originally a private church for the Doge’s (Venice’s rulers), Basilica di San Marco was only made public to ordinary Venetians in the early 1800s.

Gothic-style churches are usually straight lines and flying buttresses but for San Marco, it is a byzantine with its many domes, bringing a bit of the East over to the West at a time when Venice was a major port and therefore a crossroads between the two worlds. As if to emphasize the city’s position as an important stop on the trade routes, the front of the Basilica is decorated with mis-matched columns which were all stolen from elsewhere and brought back to Venice as trophies.

The floor, walls, and ceiling are covered with the known mosaics (there are more than 40,000 square feet of mosaics inside), and they’re spectacular. Even the arches above the entries have notable mosaics, especially the one which depicts the delivery of St. Mark’s bones to Venice - complete with a representation of the Basilica itself in the background - which adorns the doorway at the far left of the church’s front. The huge domed ceilings are largely done in gold, while the floor - too often overlooked - ripples with the years of Venice’s sinking.

I did not visit the museums which charged. Note a visit to the Basilica is free though.

And if you really must choose one to visit, take the narrow and steep staircase in the entry alcove up to the museum that has the original horses which used to overlook the square. In addition to seeing the horses, you’ll also get to go out on the roof and overlook the square yourself.

Lastly consider this link (http://www.alata.it/eng/BOOKING/sanmarco.asp) to book for a tour. It is supposed to help you avoid the line. But I'm not too sure how effective it is because somehow I was unable to make use of it due to some situation.