Hidden Surprises on display in St. Mark’s Basilica

The fanciful Byzantine spires of St. Mark’s Basilica set the church apart from all others in the serene, lagoon-bound capital of Venice. Consecrated in 1094, St. Mark’s Basilica’s odd design in light of the mainly Gothic and Renaissance structures around its quarters has as much to do about veneration and taste as it does with age. Leagues older than any other structure in Venice - or rather best preserved in comparison to the older structures of the watery capital - St. Mark’s Basilica’s peculiar Byzantine design is matched only with the strangeness of its history.





Constructed to house the stolen relic of St. Mark from Alexandria in 828, the structure we find today was eventually ammended and consecrated in 1094 upon the request of the doge, Vitale Faliero. Claiming to have found the remains of St Mark encased within a pillar, the body was brought to rest in its eponymous Venetian basilica where it remains on display - albeit covered - for both tourists and worshippers alike. In stealing the remains of St. Mark to enhance the glory of Venice to the Catholic Church, St. Mark’s Basilica would come to be a blank slate for travellers to bedeck its interior and facade with a hodgepodge of stolen items.





Two such examples, the Classical Greek Horses and purple Tetrach statue looted from Constantinople during the crusade of 1204 would eventually find a home on the Basilica’s facade. In much the same that St. Mark’s remains were brought to Venice to glorify its Catholic connections, the Serene Republic’s identification as a "new Rome" was enhanced through displaying stolen, classical works like the Horses and the Tetrarchs.





A mass of design forms and stolen, decorative works, St. Mark’s Basilica grants traveller staying at the hotels in Venice a chance to explore the grandest church in the Floating City. As much about civic pride as the building is a site of religious devotion, the variety of gilted, sculpted, spired, and stolen items bedecking the facade and interior of St. Mark’s Basilica will have visitors of the Venice hotels wonder whether looking at an impressive historical catalogue or an a pack rats attic in need of a good edit.