A mystical and fascinating place, St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice - Italy intertwines history and religion, Eastern and Western worlds, arts and lavishness in an unstoppable succession of emotions that deeply touch your soul through your eyes.
When you visit St Mark’s Cathedral you cannot avoid 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 San Marco Basilica into a constantly new and deep experience to live in Italy.
The Byzantine character of St Mark’s Cathedral 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 St Mark’s 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 in St Mark’s Square a fascinating and mysterious aura.
A visit of St Mark’s Basilica means 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 €1.50 per person a ticket to get privileged access to St Mark’s Cathedral and avoid the long queue (with an average queuing time of 45 minutes). You can get a reservation of your access to San Marco Basilica on the day and at a time you prefer. This ticket and reservation will allow you to have more free time to spend during your holiday in Venice. The reservation service is available for 7 months each year, from 1st of April to 31st of October - which also is the best time to visit St Mark’s Church – and you can book online up until 10 minutes before the chosen time for the visit.
With its majestic façade surmounted by five spires, St Mark’s Cathedral is a religious monument 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 Venice 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 in St Mark's Square. 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.
VISIT ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL IN VENICE FROM A NEW PERSPECTIVE WITH 2 EXCLUSIVE TOURS BY VENETOINSIDE.COM!
Both 'St. Mark's Cathedral and its treasures' and 'St. Mark's Museum and Cathedral from above' tours offer a covert visit that will lead you to discover from a new perspective valuable art works and places generally closed to the public inside the symbolic monument in Venice.
Discover these new fascinating guided tours and book them online!
SELECTED FOR YOU
The guided tours that are most frequently booked in Venice by travelers like you...