St Mark's Basilica

About

Saint Mark's Basilica, the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco, rises at the eastern end of Saint Mark's Square in Venice, attached to the Doge's Palace. Since 1807 it has served as the cathedral of the Patriarchate of Venice, and it holds the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist, patron of the city.

The present building is the third church on the site, begun about 1063 as an expression of Venice's growing civic confidence. Its plan was modelled upon the sixth-century Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, adapted to its waterside setting and to the ceremonial needs of the Venetian Republic, for which the basilica long served as the chapel of the Doge.

The fabric blends Middle Byzantine, Romanesque and Islamic influences, with Gothic elements added later. Through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the walls were progressively clothed in precious marbles and ancient columns, many of them spoils brought home from the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. The four bronze horses above the central portal are among the most famous of these returned treasures.

The domes and vaults are sheathed in shimmering gold-ground mosaics of saints, prophets and biblical scenes, accumulated over generations. The Pala d'Oro behind the high altar, a Byzantine gold and enamel altarpiece encrusted with hundreds of precious stones, ranks among the most exquisite achievements of medieval sacred craft in Europe.

History

The first church on the site was built to receive the relics of Saint Mark when Venetian merchants brought them from Alexandria in 828, and was succeeded by a second sanctuary in the tenth century. The present basilica was begun in 1063, consecrated in 1094, and elaborated for centuries afterward as Venice's wealth grew. After the fall of the Republic in 1797 the basilica passed from being the Doge's chapel to the seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, in which capacity it continues today.

Significance

Saint Mark's Basilica is among the supreme monuments of medieval Christian art and one of the principal pilgrimage sanctuaries of the Catholic world. The shrine of the Evangelist beneath the high altar draws the faithful from across the continents, while its mosaics, marbles and treasures bear witness to the long Venetian dialogue between East and West in the worship of Christ.