Basilica di San Marco, Venice

Basilica di San Marco, Venice

　　Saint Mark's Basilica, or Basilica di San Marco, was originally constructed in Venice in 829 A.D., and was consecrated in 832 A.D. It was originally intended to be an ecclesiastical structure to house and honor the remains of St. Mark, which had been brought from St. Alexandria. At that time, St. Mark replaced St. Theodore as patron saint of Venice, and his symbol - a winged lion - became the Venetian Republic's official symbol. Built beside the Palazzo Ducale, or the Doge's'Palace, the basilica also served as the doge's chapel; it did not become the cathedral church of Venice until 1807.

　　The first basilica was burned in 976 during a popular revolt against the doge Pietro Candiano IV but was restored under his successor, doge Domenico Contarini; the present basilica was completed in 1071. The plan is a Greek cross, and the building is surmounted by five domes. The design is distinctly Byzantine, and it is likely that both Byzantine and Italian architects and craftsmen were employed in the construction and decoration. Over the centuries, additions of sculpture, mosaics, and ceremonial objects have increased the church's richness. The famed four bronze horses on the west facade gallery, for example, were brought to Venice at the time of the Fourth Crusade (1204) from Constantinople, where they had been part of a Greco-Roman triumphal quadriga (a sculpture of a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast). Though originally placed in the arsenal, they were set up in the mid-13th century on the exterior of San Marco. They were removed to Paris by Napoleon but were returned in 1815.