The Madonna with the gold shoe in the Zen Chapel of St Marks Cathedral in Venice

St Mark's Cathedral in Venice contains many secrets and little known areas, as they are often inaccessible to the public.

The Zen Chapel – built in the 16th century in honor of the Cardinal Zen – houses for instance a bronze sculpture that is linked to a suggestive legend. The Virgin with Baby is wearing in fact a gold shoe. Why is that?

It is said that one day a poor believer gave the Virgin the only thing he owned, a pair of old shoes and that these miraculously were turned into gold. But as we can now see only one shoe, what happened to the other one?

The legend steps in again saying that one day a woman, reduced to poverty, was praying in front of the Virgin in St Mark's Cathedral and begging the Virgin for help when miraculously one of the golden shoes slipped off into the hand of the woman who was this way able to escape misery.

If you want to see this ‘Miraculous Madonna' and the chapel where she is housed and the splendid mosaics that narrate the life of St Mark, go on the tour St Mark's Cathedral and its Treasures, the only tour in Venice that can exclusively open the doors of the Zen Chapel to you.