St Mark's Cathedral in Venice - full of history and great architecture

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Hey guys,

today it my Post will be about Venice like yesterday - even though we were only there for one day, we tried to visit as much as possible. And not to get lost - which is sometimes hardly possible in the narrow high alleys ;) Here you will find yourself in a dead end faster than you think...

One of our goals, which were on our bucket list for Venice, was the famous St. Mark's Square.

We walked there relatively at the end, after we had explored the old town and the beautiful palaces at the edge of the Canal Grande.

I have to confess, unfortunately I did not find a photo on my mobile phone where you can see the "typical" picture of St. Mark's Square - the old and new procuration offices, the former administrative buildings of the Republic. What we noticed by looking at the city map: St. Mark's Square is the only square in the city that is called piazza. The other squares of Venice are called campi (from ital. campo 'the field'), because they were originally not paved. As you have probably read in the news or in the newspaper several times, St. Mark's Square is always flooded at high tide. This is because it is only just above sea level. The place is, as almost the whole city centre, one big pedestrian zone. Napoleon called the square the "most beautiful ballroom in Europe". Even if everything here was very touristical and there were really souvenir stands everywhere, the buildings already impressed me very much. And I could really imagine the life here hundreds of years ago. Many things still looked the same or very similar as in many famous paintings that show Venice.

A visit in the evening hours is especially recommended. Because then, the plaza is brightly illuminated, also by the ancient looking lanterns that are standing on the plaza.

On the upper picture you can see me in front of St. Mark's Cathedral - a little tired from the walk through the labyrinth of alleys in Venice - but happy.

St. Mark's Basilica in Venice was for a long time the central state sanctuary of the Republic of Venice until and since 1807 has been the cathedral of the Patriarch of Venice. The architecture of St. Mark's Cathedral fascinated me very much - maybe I should have studied architecture after all - joking aside. San Marco's architectural design follows models from the Byzantine architecture. This is mainly because Venice was very closely connected with Byzantium, so that the artists who were involved in the construction work mainly worked according to Byzantine models. The extensions of the 13th century were still in Byzantine style, those of the 14th century in Gothic style.

The church interior was also incredible. Unfortunately I did not find any photos of it, maybe it was not allowed to take pictures there, I am not sure anymore. But I remember the room very well ;) There was mosaic art of the finest. It was very western art and almost everything was gilded. Take a look at the cathedral from the inside if you get the chance, it's definitely worth it. But take some long clothes with you.

A small tip for St. Mark's Square: Feeding pigeons on St. Mark's Square is prohibited. Anyone who gets into a bad-tempered guardian of law and order must expect a fine of up to 500 euros! Though we did not know that before, but luckily we did not have any bread with us...

A little tip at the end: if you are in Venice for a longer time or if you want to visit some sightseeings also from the inside, there are special combi-tickets where you have to pay less money for the entrance. It is definitely worth it.

There was again a lot of information about the history and buildings of architecture. I hope you liked my mail. I am looking forward to the next post, until then ;)

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