Description of the attraction
St. Mark's Square is the main square of Venice. It is conditionally divided into St. Mark's Square proper and Piazzetta - a small area between St. Mark's Square and the canal. St. Mark's Square is flanked by the long arched buildings of the Old Prosecutors' Office and the New Prosecutor's Office. Procurators regulated the entire social life of the city, so their number increased year after year and it took the construction of a separate building to house this bureaucratic apparatus, which happened at the beginning of the 16th century. The building of the New Prosecutors later housed the residence of Napoleon. Now it houses the Correr Museum, which houses a collection of paintings by Canova, Bellini, Carpaccio and some Byzantine artists.
The Piazzetta can be called the magnificent atrium of the grand Piazza Saint Mark. The monuments that rise on this small square are of exceptional importance: on the left it is framed by the Sansovine Library, and on the right - the Doge's Palace. In the old days, there was a food market at this place, and only in 1536 the doge's decree decreed that the Piazzetta should be released from the shops. Death sentences were carried out on the Piazzetta.
From the side of the pier there are two columns of red marble; they were brought to Venice from the East in 1125 and installed only in 1172. The Column of St. Theodore bears the name of this saint revered in Venice, as his statue, consisting of parts of various origins, adorns the top of the column. On the other column is a bronze winged lion - the symbol of St. Mark, of unknown origin.
Description added:
blagonina 02.10.2013
The compositional center of the square is the Cathedral of St. Mark (San Marco). The Cathedral of St. Mark has a cross-domed structure, repeating the structure of the not preserved Church of the Twelve Apostles from Constantinople. Another element that distinguishes it from other Catholic churches is the icons, made
Show all text The compositional center of the square is the Cathedral of St. Mark (San Marco). The Cathedral of St. Mark has a cross-domed structure, repeating the structure of the not preserved Church of the Twelve Apostles from Constantinople. Another element that distinguishes it from other Catholic churches is the icons made from mosaic panels made using Byzantine technology. In fact, all the walls of St. Mark's Cathedral are covered with mosaic panels. In this, the temple bears a resemblance to another masterpiece of mosaic painting - the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, where the area of the mosaic panels is smaller, but the compositions are more complex.
The facades of the Cathedral of St. Mark are decorated with ancient relics brought by the Venetians from different countries, and in the treasury there are many temple relics that also came here from various military campaigns. The Venetians were able to replenish the treasury of the temple to the greatest extent in 1204 during the 4th crusade, when, on the advice of the Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo, Christians from Western Europe decided not to go to Jerusalem to free the Holy Sepulcher from Muslims, but decided to plunder Christian Constantinople.
In addition to inspecting the interiors of the temple, you should definitely go up to the terrace of the temple. From here you can admire beautiful views of Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace, as well as the Quadriga of the Horses of Lysippos. A copy of the Horses of Lysippos is now standing over the main entrance, and the originals are kept in the Museum of St. Mark's Cathedral. This quadriga was made by an ancient Greek sculptor, possibly the great Lysippos, in the 3rd century BC.and for several centuries it decorated the hippodrome of the island of Chios, then it was transported to Constantinople, and from there, during the crusade, they were brought and installed on the terrace of St. Mark's Cathedral.
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