A mystical and fascinating place, the St Mark’s Basilica intertwines history and religion, Eastern and Western worlds, arts and lavishness in an unstoppable succession of emotions that through your eyes deeply touch your soul.
One cannot avoid, when visiting the Venice cathedral, gazing at the vast amount of decorations, mosaics, architectonic structures, precious objects and sacred and allegorical images that adorn the church inside and outside – to face all this in the best way, before delving into the details, it is important to let oneself be swept away by this abundance, which changes time after time depending on the lighting, one’s stance and many other details that all together turn St Mark’s Basilica into a constantly new and profound experience.
The Basilica’s Byzantine character emerges from several elements, the main one being the mosaic that narrates the life of St Mark and episodes from the Old and New Testament.
Inside the Basilica there is an evocative and soft darkness contrasted by the glaring light of the golden mosaics and jewels – a stark effect that gives the church a fascinating and mysterious aura.
Visiting St Mark’s Basilica signifies entering into an intricate world imbued with religion, art and sacred images that narrate in detail the history of Venice: the beauty of this place is nonetheless blindingly evident and one does not need to decipher it in order to appreciate it.
Purchase online at a cost of 1€ per person your privileged access to St Mark’s Cathedral and avoid the long queue (with an average queuing time of 45 minutes). You can book the access to the Cathedral on the day and at a time that you prefer. This will allow you to have more free time to spend your holiday in Venice. The service is available for 7 months each year, from 1st of April to 31st of October, and the online booking can be made up until 10 minutes before the chosen time for the visit.
With it majestic façade surmounted by five spires, this religious monument is based on a Greek cross and was the third one built next to the Palazzo Ducale and dedicated to St Mark with the purpose of housing the mortal remains of the saint after they were purloined from Alexandria of Egypt. Starting from the year 828 it was rebuilt several times, highlighted through a succession of ever increasingly elaborate renovations, the events that made the Republic of Serenissima great. There are numerous extremely valuable artefacts that have been brought here by the people of Venice from far a field as a tribute to the city’ patrons, contributing to the development of a unique majestic, enigmatic and awesome masterpiece. Until 1807 St Mark’s Basilica acted as the private chapel of the doge and later became the Venice Cathedral in place of the ancient church of San Pietro a Castello.
As of this year, Venetoinside offers two new guided tours inside St Mark’s Cathedral that 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.
Discover these two new fascinating tours and book them online now!
From November to March St Mark’s Cathedral is open to visitors, but the Skip the Line service is suspended because waiting times to enter the Cathedral from the main entrance reduce considerably and visitors can therefore enter without having to queue for a long time.
SELECTED FOR YOU: The most frequently booked tours in Venice by travelers like you...