This monument combined the political, social and religious history of the Republic of Venice. The cathedral was built in 829 during the reign of Doge Giustiano Partecipazio to house the remains of St Mark the Evangelist, who became the sole patron saint of the city. After a fire in 927, the basilica was rebuilt again between 1043 and 1071 by Doge Domenico Contarini.
The lower part of the facade, 51.8 metres long and slightly forward, consists of five arched spans, with columns decorated with oriental capitals. The middle arch is wider than the others. The semi-circles of the arches of the portals are covered with mosaics. Between the arches are beautiful Byzantine bas-reliefs of the XII century, depicting the Virgin Mary, St George, St Demetrius and others. The whole lower part is covered with a terrace surrounded by a balustrade. In the upper part there are five arches covered with mosaics, decorated with fantastic Gothic spires. The central arch is wider than the other arches and is glazed, through which light enters the cathedral. The crowning element of the façade reveals five round vaults in the oriental style of the 13th century.
On the terrace, in front of the glazed central archway are four famous bronze horses, which at one time were gilded. They are a Greek masterpiece from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, attributed to Lysippus. These horses were brought to Venice from Constantinople by Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204 and were installed on the terrace in 1250. Recently restored to preserve the integrity of the bronze. The originals, now in the cathedral museum, have been replaced by copies.
From the central portal one enters the atrium, a beautiful gallery of coloured mosaics. It is divided into arched spans with a dome. Against the walls are marble columns of various origins, some possibly brought from Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. The mosaics decorating the arches, semicircles and domes depict episodes of the Old and New Testament, as well as episodes from the story of Noah and the Flood. They were executed by Venetian masters of the 13th century.
The three-nave interior of the cathedral is divided by arched spans on marble columns with gilded capitals. The cleros, according to Eastern custom, was separated from the church by an iconostasis decorated with polychrome marble, with eight columns supporting an architrave on which statues of the Virgin Mary and the Apostles are set. The marble floor is in some places mosaicised and uneven due to subsidence of the ground into which the piles were driven and on which the cathedral stands.
One of the chapels houses the Madonna of Nicopaea (Victorious), a 10th-century Byzantine icon that was brought to Venice after the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
The main altar of the cathedral holds the remains of the Evangelist Mark in an urn behind a grate. A true medieval jewellery masterpiece, the Pala doro ("Golden Image"), is set above the high altar. In 978, Doge Pietro Orseolo commissioned this altar from the masters of Constantinople. In 1105 it was remodelled by the Doge Ordelaffo Faliero, and in 1209 it was further enriched with Byzantine gold and enamel. The piece, 3.4 metres long and 1.4 metres wide, is richly decorated with diamantes, emeralds, rubies, and topazes.
In the centre of the Baptistery is the baptismal font, made by Titian Minio, Desiderio da Firenze and Francesco Segala in the 15th century after a drawing by Jacopo Sansovino. Segala also owns the statue of St John the Baptist. The tomb of Jacopo Sansovino is among the tombs of famous Doges. The granite slab of Phoenician origin on which the altar stands is probably the slab from which Christ preached. The mosaics covering the walls, vaults and domes were made by Venetian masters in the fourteenth century and depict episodes from the life of the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
