What is Piazza San Marco, St. Markā€™s Square?

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Mirna

Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal square of Venice, Italy.

A remark often attributed to Napoleon (but perhaps more correctly to Alfred de Musset) calls the Piazza San Marco "The drawing room of europe". It is one of the few great urban spaces in a Europe where human voices prevail over the sounds of motorized traffic, which is confined to Venice's waterways. It is the only urban space called a piazza in Venice; the others, regardless of size, are called campi.
As the central landmark and gathering place for Venice, Piazza San Marco is extremely popular with tourists, photographers, and Venetian pigeons.
The Piazza originated in the 9th century as a small area in front of the original St Mark's Basilica. It was enlarged to its present size and shape in 1177, when the Rio Batario, which had bounded it to the west, and a dock, which had isolated the Doge's Palace from the square, were filled in. The rearrangement was for the meeting of Pope Alexander III and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

The Piazza has always been seen as the centre of Venice. It was the location of all the important offices of the Venetian state, and has been the seat of the archbishopric since the 19th century. It was also the focus for many of Venice's festivals. It is a greatly popular place in Italy even today.

The Piazza is dominated by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile, which stands apart from it.

The buildings around the Piazza are, counter-clockwise from the Grand Canal, the Doge's Palace, St Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Clocktower, the Procuratie Vecchie, the Napoleonic Wing of the Procuraties, the Procuratie Nuove, St Mark's Campanile and Loggetta and the Biblioteca Marciana. Most of the ground floor of the Procuraties is occupied by cafĆ©s, including the CaffĆØ Florian and Gran CaffĆØ Quadri. The Correr Museum and the Museum of Archaeology are located in some of the buildings of the Piazza. The Venetian Mint lies beyond the Biblioteca Marciana on the riva or bank of the Grand Canal.

During the French occupation from 1797, Napoleon converted the Procuratie Nuove into his royal palace. He constructed a new wing to house his ballroom, and this caused the destruction of the Church of San Geminiano, built by Jacopo Sansovino. The Ala Napoleonica (Napoleonic Wing) was designed by Giuseppe Soli in 1810. The Napoleonic Wing was the last of the Piazza's buildings to be completed, excepting the campanile which has since been rebuilt, but to its original design.

The Piazza has also served as inspiration for other public areas. Minoru Yamasaki used the site as a basis for the 5-acre Austin J. Tobin Plaza that was located at the World Trade Center in New York City until September 11th 2001.
Pavement
The Piazza was paved in the late 13th century with bricks laid in a herringbone pattern. Bands of light-colored stone ran parallel to the long axis of the main piazza. These lines were probably used in setting up market stalls and in organizing frequent ceremonial processions. This original pavement design can be seen in paintings of the late Middle Ages and through the Renaissance, such as Gentile Bellini's Procession in Piazza San Marco of 1496.

In 1723 the bricks were replaced with a more complex geometrical pavement design composed of a field of dark-colored igneous trachyte with geometrical designs executed in white Istrian stone, similar to travertine. Squares of diagonally-laid blocks alternated with rectangular and oval designs along broad parallel bands. The squares were pitched to the center, like a bowl, where a drain conducted surface water into a below-grade drainage system. The pattern connected the central portal of the Basilica with the center of the western opening into the piazza. This line more closely parallels the faĆ§ade of the Procuratie Vecchie, leaving a nearly triangular space adjacent to the Procuratie Nuove with its wider end closed off by the Campanile. The pattern continued past the campanile, stopping at a line connecting the three large flagpoles and leaving the space immediately in front of the Basilica undecorated. A smaller version of the same pattern in the Piazzetta paralleled Sansovino's Library, leaving a narrow trapezoid adjacent to the Doge's palace with the wide end closed off by the southwest corner of the Bailica.
The design was laid out by Venetian architect Andrea Tirali. Little is known about Tirali's reasoning for the particulars of the design. Some have speculated that the pattern was still used to regulate market stalls, or at least to recall their former presence in the square. Others believe the pattern may have been drawn from oriental rugs, which were a popular luxury item in this trading center. The overall alignment of the pavement pattern serves to visually lengthen the long axis and reinforce the position of the Basilica at its head. This arrangement mirrors the interior relationship of nave to altar within the cathedral.
As part of the design, the level of the piazza was raised by approximately one meter to mitigate flooding and allow more room for the internal drains to carry water to the Grand Canal.

In 1890, the pavement was renewed "due to wear and tear". The new work closely follows Tirali's design, but eliminated the oval shapes and cut off the west edge of the pattern to accommodate the Napoleonic wing at that end of the Piazza.

The Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in Venice, and as a result during the Acqua Alta the "high water" from storm surges from the Adriatic, or even heavy rain, it is the first to flood. Water pouring into the drains in the Piazza runs directly into the Grand Canal. This is ideal during heavy rain, but during the acqua alta it has the reverse effect, with water from the canal surging up into the Square.

bg b

Is like downtown if you want put in that way. There is Basilica of San Marco, Palazzo Ducale or the residence of past governors.

lara

St Mark Cathedral nice monuments water and nice coffe shops very expensive and sunshine. A lot's of tourist and jewelery shops and pigeons.

Just Tom

type in "Piazza San Marco Venice" in your search engine.

Located nearby is Harry's bar of Ernest Hemingway fame.
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Michelle S

A beautiful view, museums, gondola rides nearby and lots of pigeons and nice stores...I recommend it

doggs g

After much navagation and winding our ways through narrow streets, we reached the San Marco.
You will find lots of souviners and things like that.
Most people go there to see this beautiful cathedral that was built awhile ago,
there are also statues and a large clock tower. great photo opps. you will also encounter many pigeons.
There are museums but they cost money to get in.

kat17

It's one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. The church is unique because it is Byzantine style architecture, which you see a lot of in Venice but not really anywhere else. (read up on the Venetian role of sacking Constantinople in the 4th crusade and you'll learn about the Byzantine fascination)

The mosaics of San Marco are interesting to check out, very beautiful & admirable in how painstaking it must have been to make them.

The Doges Palace is next door, you can see what inspired the hotel in Vegas :)

Unfortunately the uber-expensive cafes there can have you spending your whole daily food budget on one coffee, but they do offer a great view of the piazza. And yes, lots of pigeons.

darby8251

This large open plaza is located in front of the Basilica di San Marco right where the Grand Canal meets the the Giudecca Canal. The most famous sights there are the Basilica, the Doges Palace and the Campanile (bell tower), but there are also some interesting museums, such as the archaeological museum, and the Correr museum which is very near. There is a zodiac clock with a 24 hour clock. There are also two granite columns, one topped with the winged lion of St. Mark and the other with a strange beast for St. Theodore. Executions used to take place between these towers, so it's considered bad luck to go between them. The square is lined with very expensive cafes and upscale shops. If you sit on the chairs in the square you will have to pay a cover charge or buy a very expensive drink. However, you can wander down the middle of the square in the evening and listen to beautiful competing orchestras at the restaurants for free. Piazza San Marco is extremely crowded when the cruise ships are at Venice, so go early in the morning or later in the evening to really enjoy the experience.

mareeclara

Its a large square in Venice.....its kind of the town square I guess.....its would be one of the more open places in venice ( the rest has lots of windy/narrow roads or canals!)

There are several things to see at st marcos square like st marco's cathedral ( lots of gold moasics), the Doge's palace ( the doges ruled venice for quite a while when venice was an independent state), there is a large "clock tower", in the square there are lots of very friendly pigeons......as well as lots of places to eat....

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