The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (officially known in Italian as the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco and commonly known as Saint Mark’s Basilica) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy.
The story of one of the most beautiful cities of Italy – Venice, a long and glorious. In the second half of the Middle Ages, its possessions stretched from the Alps to the Po River and Bergamo. The main income of the Republic of Venice brought sea trade in the first place, with the countries of the East. Its fleet consisted of 3,000 vessels.
The main part of the city was laid in the center of a large lagoon Adriatic Sea. Its architectural shape was formed in the heyday of the Republic (14 – 16 cc.). But some of the most important monuments arose much earlier. The most famous of these is associated with the patron saint of the city, which from the 9th century. became St. Mark. He is the author of the second, the earliest gospel. No wonder all the latest tours in Venice include the obligatory visit the Cathedral of St. Mark.
It is the most famous of the city’s churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge’s Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city’s cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, formerly at San Pietro di Castello.
In 828, two Venetian merchants Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello, returning from the East, was abducted from Alexandria remains of St. Mark and the ship brought them to Venice, hiding in a basket of vegetables and pork carcasses and thus avoiding checks Muslims. The relics of the saint were received with great honors, and the Doge of Venice, ordered on the site of two previous churches to build a new one, which would have kept the relic. The winged lion – the symbol of St. Mark – has since become a symbol of Venice, and the saint – the patron saint of the new city.
The Cathedral was built and rebuilt over the centuries, in its present architecture Byzantine, Roman and Venetian elements. The facade of the Basilica – a masterpiece of Gothic sculpture, decorated with numerous columns, arches, spiers, bas-reliefs.
The first St Mark’s was a temporary building in the Doge’s Palace, constructed in 828, when Venetian merchants stole the supposed relics of Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria. This was replaced by a new church on its present site in 832; from the same century dates the first St Mark’s Campanile (bell tower). The new church was burned in a rebellion in 976 when the populace locked Pietro IV Candiano inside to kill him. Rebuilt in 978 and again to form the basis of the present basilica since 1647. The basilica was consecrated in 1673, the same year in which the body of Saint Mark was supposedly rediscovered in a pillar by Vitale Faliero, doge at the time. The building also incorporates a low tower (now housing St Mark’s Treasure), believed by some to have been part of the original Doge’s Palace.
Within the first half of the 18th century the narthex and the new façade were constructed, most of the mosaics were completed and the domes were covered with higher wooden, lead-covered domes in order to blend in with the Gothic architecture of the redesigned Doge’s Palace.
The history of modern St Mark’s Cathedral dates back to the 11th century. Its construction was started in 1063, and in ’31 the church was consecrated. Over the following centuries, the church has expanded continuously, enriched and adorned. Venetian sailors brought monumental columns, marble Eastern, Greek and Roman bas-reliefs, Greek and Byzantine sculptures. All this was perfectly connected with the design of the cathedral. The building itself has a cruciform plan and crowned with five domes: one above the center of the cross, and four – at its ends. The grand building is built on the model of unpreserved Church of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople. Its contemporary image in a blend of different styles, the temple has gained over many decades rebuilding. Unchanged to this day remains the facade design with huge niches in which the inputs are made. Above the main entrance of the magnificent bronze hoisted the four mighty horses.
The interior of the temple dazzles the senses. Glitter of mosaics and marble play combines with rich ornamentation floor.
While the basic structure of the building has been much altered, its decoration changed greatly over time. The succeeding centuries, especially the fourteenth, all contributed to its adornment, and seldom did a Venetian vessel return from the Orient without bringing a column, capitals, or friezes, taken from some ancient building, to add to the fabric of the basilica. Gradually, the exterior brickwork became covered with various marbles and carvings, some much older than the building itself (see Four Tetrarchs, below). The last interventions concerned Baptistery and St Isidor’s Chapel (1700s), the carvings on the upper profile of the facade and the Sacristy (1800s), the Zen Chapel (1900s).