Basilica With A View

I had forgotten just how amazingly different St. Mark’s Basilica is from most churches and cathedrals in Europe. It’s from the 11th Century, when was dependent on Byzantium to protect it from Charlemagne and looks, so it looks more Eastern than Western.

As Mark Twain said, it looks like “a vast warty bug taking a meditative walk” with its multiple onion domes and golden mosaics on the front of the church that glitter and glow as the sun shifts from the morning eastern sky to the afternoon western sky.  

(Brief interlude: After the Clock Tower tour, we headed out of St. Mark’s Square and wandered a bit looking for lunch.  We espied a place down an arched alley and knew it was for us.  Just sitting there, eating pizza for lunch, the place felt perfect.  It was a very small open courtyard between the buildings on all sides.  As people walked past at the other end of the alley, they looked in at us and the others eating lunch, with some making the same decision we did.)

Anyhow, back to our after lunch activity, wandering around St. Mark’s with our jaws dropping at multiple points.  When we walked by in the morning, there was a long line to get into the basilica, probably more than 100 persons long.  When we showed up, expecting a similar length line, there were all of five people ahead of us.  We kept looking back, assuming we had cut the line or something.  We didn’t look back often, mostly because we were in the church before we knew it.

Rick Steves’ puts out our favorite guides to Europe, and one reason is that he provides self-guided tours of top places, sometimes walking tours, sometimes within a building.  He provides one for St. Mark’s, and it’s a good one.  He accurately calls St. Mark’s “a riot of domes”, and it is clearly one.  

The architectural style has been called, as Rick Steves notes, “Early Ransack,” as it is full of materials looted from conquests for the Venetian Empire. 

Highlights of the church include the 13th century mosaic of Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood, mosaics of Old Testament figures in the Byzantine style, a 12th century Pentecost Mosaic in which the apostles appear to have red mohawks, although that actually represents the fire of the Holy Spirit, and, well, anymore and this paragraph will have gone far past the idea of a run-on sentence and become a travesty of writing.

(Editor: That never stopped you before.  Writer: In the words of man about town Gene Laporta, “oh you be quiet.”)

The Central Dome features the Ascension Mosaic, showing Jesus ascending into the starry heavens on a rainbow.  The window-lit dome symbolizes heaven, whilst the dark church below represents earth.  There is a rood screen topped with 14 saints, and there is the Doge’s pulpit held up by marvelous columns that remind me of parts of Gaudi’s Parc Guell.  Beneath the high altar lies the body of St. Mark and the Golden Altarpiece, which has 250 religious scenes framed by gold.  

But that’s not all.  The Altarpiece also has 15 big rubies, 300 emerals, 1500 pearls, as well as sapphiers, amethysts, and topaz.  Kind of like what’s in Carol’s jewelry box.  (Just kidding!).

Then upstairs is a museum that includes additional amazing mosaics, the original bronze horses from the cathedral, now retired to stud. There’s also a fantastic view of the church’s interior from above.

But the piece de resistance is the upper balcony, which looks out over the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square).  It is one of three great views of the Piazza – the Campanile (later), the Clock Tower, and the Basilica.  

(Editor: You may end up confusing readers by switching between “Basilica” and “Church,” as well as between “Piazza San Marco” and “St. Mark’s Square.”  Writer: I’m just trying to help them learn Italian.  Editor: You probably know about a dozen words of Italian.  I don’t think you are helping anybody learn a foreign language.  Writer: Si.)

We spent some time roaming the balcony, basking in the glow being Under the Venetian Sun before heading back down, where we spent some time in the Atrium, taking in the various mosaics, incluing Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood.  

Proving the Unicorn Song to be true, there were no unicorns in the mosaic.    

One of the five domes

of the St. Mark's Basilica.

You may think these are Five Guys,

but they are actually some of the

saints that top the rood, which

isn't as rude as you might think.

The Golden Altarpiece.

The carvings on this column

are so amazing I had

to include this photo,

even though I have

no specific info to add.

King Solomon of, oh look at

this -- Israel!  So much

for Palestine.  No need

to split the baby in half

after all. 

The four original bronze horses,

taken by conquest from

Constantinople.

A classic view from the balcony.  The

column to the left is a winged lion

(symbol of St. Mark) and the one to the

right is St. Todaro and a crocodile he

killed.  Todaro was the patron

saint of Venice until Mark got more

electoral votes and won the job.

Todaro would be a great name for

a new type of car.  

Cow jumping over the moon, er, sun.

One of the "new horses" with

the Campanile behind it.

View toward the Lagoon from the Balcony.

The Doge's Palace is over my right

shoulder and the two columns are

between us.

Us, Basilica of St. Mark,

and the Doge's Palace.

Us, St. Mark's, and a couple of

photo bombers.  Those two

really make the photo work.

Noah and his ark.  I somehow did not

take a picture of the animals loading

onto the ark, so you'll just have to

trust me -- there's no unicorn in the

mosaic.