Piazza and cathedral of san marco in venice

This is the only place in the city, which the Venetians themselves call piacea - the square.

The residents of the city call the remaining squares campo or campiello - a field or small field. In the 9th century, it was a small area near St. Mark's Cathedral. In 1777 the square regained its present size. Today, St. Mark's Square has the shape of a trapezoid with a length of 175m, width in the wide part - 82m, and in the narrow part - 56m.

The northern side of the square is occupied by the building of the Old Prosecutions, the southern - by the building of the New Prosecutors. A clock tower with a bell is attached to the Old Procuration, and bronze statues beat on it every hour, and the dial is decorated with the signs of the zodiac. These buildings in the western part are connected by the arcades of the Fabrique Nuove, giving the square the appearance of a huge courtyard. The bell tower of San Marco rises in the southeast corner. The height of the bell tower is 99m.

However, the main attraction of the square is the Cathedral of St. Mark - the Cathedral of Venice, which gave the square its name. Until 1807, the cathedral was a court chapel at.

Advice: you can get to the cathedral without queuing by purchasing a ticket in advance online for 5 euros.

According to legend, in 828, two Venetian merchants Rustico and Buono stole the body of St. Mark and took it out of Alexandria, after hiding it in pork carcasses. To store the relics of St. Mark, the basilica was erected, which was consecrated in 832. In 976, a fire practically destroyed the basilica, but by the end of the 10th century it was being restored. New construction of the cathedral on the Byzantine model (Constantinople Church of the Twelve Apostles) began in 1063, and in 1094 the cathedral was consecrated. Over the next centuries, the cathedral was decorated and expanded. Every foreign ship that came to the port had to present a precious gift to the cathedral. Many relics ended up in the church after the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204.

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Cathedral of San Marco becomes the religious and political center of the Venetian Republic. In the cathedral, grandiose official ceremonies were held: the coronation and presentation of the new doge to the townspeople, the blessing of the troops before the war (in particular, before the 4th crusade). Here captain Marco Polo received his blessing before sailing.

For more than 4 centuries, the cathedral was under construction and completed. This affected the architectural style. The cathedral is a harmonious blend of eras and styles.

The predominant style is Byzantine, but this is true of the general appearance and domes. The addition of antique columns and bas-reliefs, Gothic towers and arrows, facing with oriental marble - all this suggests that the Cathedral of San Marco is a unique architectural monument, made in its own Venetian style.

The building of the cathedral was built in the form of a Greek cross with dimensions of 76.5m by 62.5m, the height along the central dome is 43m. The interior of the church is represented by a variety of iconostasis, statues of the apostles and numerous mosaics.

Today, the Cathedral of San Marco is an active temple where divine services are held. And such relics as the relics of St. Mark, the relics of the martyr Isidore, the image of the Mother of God "Nicopeia", make the Cathedral of San Marco the center of Christian pilgrimage.

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