Two new tours to discover a covert St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice

From 4.1.2012 to 10.31.2012

Venetoinside is pleased to present two new exclusive tours in Venice that will commence on 1 April 2012: “St Mark’s Museum and Cathedral from above” and “The treasures of St Mark’s Cathedral”.

Both tours will offer a covert visit inside one of the most famous monuments in the world - St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice - and will lead you to discover from a new perspective valuable art works and places generally closed to the public inside this symbolic monument in Venice.

“St Mark’s Museum and Cathedral from above” will give you the opportunity to walk into the history of the Cathedral with the observation of its most renowned decorations: the mosaics of St Mark.

It will be possible to admire these masterpieces from a close range and notice the smallest details. Additionally, the preparation techniques used in the mosaics of St Mark’s Cathedral will be illustrated via panels and 15th century fragments housed inside the Cathedral’s Museum. The visit of the mosaics of St Mark and the illustration of their time-honoured techniques will take place in a quiet location within Venice’s Cathedral, away from the crowds that flood into St Mark’s everyday. After the mosaics, visitors will be lead into an ancient room of Venice Doge’s Palace to admire the splendid tapestries that were once used during the most important celebrations. A crucial moment of the tour will be the visit of the authentic bronze horses, a symbol of the Venice Cathedral, and the lodge where you will admire the beautiful view of St Mark’s Square from above, whilst listening to a description of the monuments that make it one of the most suggestive places in the world.

“The treasures of St Mark’s Cathedral” includes a visit to the locations of St Mark’s Cathedral where visitors are generally not allowed and that can be visited only with this tour. Tour participants will first be seated at the centre of the magnificent St Mark’s Cathedral and will listen to its fascinating history from a comfortable position. They will subsequently be accompanied to two lesser known locations - and for this reason even more suggestive: the Baptistery of St Mark’s Cathedral and the Zen Chapel. They enshrine centuries of art, history and spirituality. In particular, the Cathedral’s Baptistery houses the famous mosaics, the baptismal font and gravestone of Sansovino and the tomb of Venice’s last Doge. The visit will continue into the only remaining relics of the ancient Venice Doge’s Palace, two rooms housing the Treasures of St Mark’s Cathedral. A vast collection of sacred objects and relics, the Treasure of St Mark’s Cathedral contains true masterpieces, the majority being pieces of Byzantine and Islamic art that were brought to Venice after the looting of Constantinople. The last stage of this suggestive tour will be the major altar, which houses the St Mark remains and the Golden Pall – an object of inestimable value and beauty that is shown to the public only during major liturgical celebrations.

Both tours will run from 1 April to 31 October 2012 and can already be booked online on Venetoinside.com, in English and Italian. They are available on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at these times: 11.10am – 12.10pm – 1.05pm and 4.40pm for the “St Mark’s Museum and Cathedral from above” tour, and 10am – 2.20pm and 3.30pm for the “The treasures of St Mark’s Cathedral” tour.

Book online the “St Mark’s Museum and Cathedral from above” tour

Book online the “The treasures of St Mark’s Cathedral” tour: