St. Mark's Cathedral: skip-the -line guided tour of St. Mark's Museum with access to the external terrace

Before booking, please note:

• the skip-the-line access to St. Mark's Basilica is included in the tour;
• max 25 participants per group;
• to access to St. Mark's Museum you have to climb a steep staircase therefore the tour is not recommended to people with limited mobility and wheelchair users. We apologize for the inconvenience!
• the tour is monolingual (English, Italian or French).

A new and exclusive guided tour that will lead you to the discovery of St. Mark’s Museum and St. Mark’s Cathedral, the precious mosaics of St Mark’s Cathedral and its famous bronze horses and enthrall you with the emotions of a unique panoramic view of St Mark’s Square in Venice.

Founded in the late 19th century, St Mark's Museum in Venice houses a varied collection of objects of different origin belonging to the Cathedral. Throughout the exhibit, you will admire artefacts of great value such as the bronze horses of St Mark, originally located on the external loggia and later moved, Persian rugs, ancient codices and illustrated graduals, tapestries and fragments of the mosaics that were found and preserved from destruction during the restoration work carried out in the 19th century.

Everyone knows of the famous Venice St Mark’s Cathedral in St Mark’s Square, but the tour we offer will let you discover the history, the artistic techniques and important evidences of its past from a different perspective - from above.

Our tour will start from the narthex, where you will meet with the guide who will accompany you to discover an all-new side to the Basilica. Climbing the stairs leading to San Marco Museum in Venice, Italy, you will learn about the millenarian history and architecture of this fascinating building, and hear a brief explanation of the famous St Mark’s mosaics and the different stages and techniques of their construction.

The guided tour of St Marks Museum will start from the external loggia, where, in the shade of the paired horses and the wonderful gothic frame that crowns the facade of the Cathedral, you will admire from above one of the icons of Venice: St Mark’s Square. From this unusual panoramic view of St Mark’s Square the tour will be wrapped up with an overview of the main buildings that make St Mark’s Square one of the most fascinating and evocative places in the world.

A fundamental point during our guided tour of San Marco Museum in Venice will be the visit to the original gilded bronze horses - masterpieces of the Greek Hellenistic sculptures once used to adorn the hippodrome of Constantinople and today a symbol of the Venice Cathedral. Next to St. Mark’s horses some architecture fragments are housed, dating back to the oldest construction phases of St Mark’s Basilica in the IX century A.D.

This unique guided tour of St Mark’s Basilica will continue with a view of the statue of the Madonna with child in gilded terracotta by Sansovino, whose fascinating history is linked to the collapse of St Mark’s Bell Tower on 14 July, 1902.

The last part of our brand-new guided tour of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice will take place in the Banquets Hall. Serving in ancient times as a connecting structure with the Doge’s Palace, the hall was merged with the Basilica only in the 19th century. The guide will tell you about the history of the room and will explain the most important pieces of its design, in particular the wonderful Passion tapestries (1408-1427) and those with St Mark’s stories, the 15th century Doge’s wooden throne surmounted by an ancient golden lion, the Venetian-Byzantine painting of the Madonna Lactans and, finally, the Pala Feriale by Paolo Veneziano and sons displaying the story of the bond between St Mark and Venice.

At the end of the tour you will have the opportunity to trace back the display of Museum of St Mark’s Square, in total autonomy, and the other areas of St Mark’s Basilica, along the standard sequencing followed by visitors, without the need to leave the building. This way you will enter it again avoiding the queue at the main entrance.

Important info

Departure point map