Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP OF CHAPTER
1
Piazza San Marco
& Around
Basilica di San Marco
CHURCH
(St Mark's Basilica; 041 270 83 11;
www.basilicasanmarco.it
; Piazza San Marco; 9.45am-5pm
Mon-Sat, 2-5pm Sun & holidays, baggage storage 9.30am-5.30pm; San Marco)
Creating
Venice's architectural wonder took nearly 800 years and one saintly barrel of lard. In AD
828, wily Venetian merchants allegedly smuggled St Mark's corpse out of Egypt in a bar-
rel of pork fat to avoid inspection by Muslim customs authorities. Venice built a golden
basilica around its stolen saint, whose bones were misplaced twice during construction
(oops).
The front of the basilica ripples and crests like a wave, its five niched portals capped
with shimmering mosaics. In the far-left portal, lunette mosaics dating from 1270 show St
Mark's stolen body arriving at the basilica - a story reprised in 1660 lunette mosaics on
the second portal from the right. Grand entrances are made through the central portal, un-
der an ornate triple arch with Egyptian purple porphyry columns and 13th- to 14th-century
reliefs of vines, virtues and astrological signs.
Blinking is natural upon your first glimpse of the basilica's glittering mosaics, many
made with 24-carat gold leaf fused onto the glass. Just inside the narthex (vestibule) glitter
the basilica's oldest mosaics:
Apostles with the Madonna
, standing sentry by the main
door for over 950 years. The atrium's medieval
Dome of Genesis
depicts the separation of
sky and water with surprisingly abstract motifs, anticipating modern art by 650 years.
Last
Judgment
mosaics cover the atrium vault and the apocalypse looms large in vault mosaics
over the gallery.
Mystical transfusions occur in the
Dome of the Holy Spirit
, where a dove's blood streams
onto the heads of saints. In the central 13th-century
Cupola of the Ascension
, angels swirl
overhead while dreamy-eyed St Mark rests on the pendentive. Scenes from St Mark's life
unfold over the main altar, in vaults flanking the
Dome of the Prophets
(best seen from the
Pala d'Oro).
