St Mark's Square and Basilica
Four thousand square metres of gold mosaic, and a square that goes under water several times a year.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 2 hrs 30 min
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The basilica was begun in 828 to house the body of St Mark, stolen from Alexandria by two Venetian merchants who are said to have hidden it under pork to get past Muslim customs. Its plan is Byzantine, with five domes, not Romanesque like the rest of Italy.
The interior carries eight and a half thousand square metres of mosaic, four thousand of them on gold ground, laid between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. The four bronze horses on the loggia were taken from Constantinople in 1204, carried to Paris by Napoleon and returned in 1815 — the ones outside are copies, the originals are kept out of the salt.
Getting there
At the end of the Grand Canal, vaporetto line 1 or 2, San Marco stop. The whole centre converges here on foot.
Rules on site
Backpacks are banned inside the basilica and must be left at a store a hundred metres away down a side lane: allow for the detour. Shoulders and knees covered, enforced.
