• Piazza San Marco

PIAZZA SAN MARCO has always been the center of the city. It was called Piazza instead of Campo because even in its name it had to be unique. At the beginning of the 9th century the Piazza was much smaller. The primitive church of San Geminiano stood on its bank facing St. Mark's and the area was grassy with a large orchard planted with vines and fruit trees. At the end of the 12th century the political and commercial power of Venice had become far stronger. Then the Venetians felt the need to give a richer aspect to their Piazza.

So it was extended to embrace nearly the same area that it occupies today: the canal was filled in, and the Church of Geminiano was demolished. At the beginning of the 15th century Mauro Codussi started building the Procuratie Vecchie, the buildings that go down the left side with two floors with loggias. The work was continued under the direction of Bartolomeo Bon in 1512; Jacopo Sansovino completed the bottom end in 1532. The Piazza came to be what it was when Gentile Bellini drew it in his famous painting of the "Procession of the Cross" - Accademy Gallery.
The buildings that go down the right side are called Procuratie Nuove and they were completed in 1640 by Baldassare Longhena. The third side of the Piazza looking towards the Church of St. Mark was occupied by the Church of San Geminiano (the façade had been rebuilt in the 16th cent.). In 1807 the church was demolished by Napoleon's orders with the idea af assing a splendid Ballroom. The work was begun in 1810, on the building of the Ala Napoleonica in neo-classical style.

On the side of the Procuratie Vecchie close to the Church of St. Mark stands the Clock Tower, a fine Renaissance building with coloured enamels and gold: the central part was built after designs by Mauro Codussi (1496-99); the side wings were added between 1500 and 1506The Campanile (the Bell Tower, 98.60 metres high) stands isolated, by the side of the Church of St. Mark. It was begun on already existing Roman foundation in the 9th century and added to at various times from the 12th to the 14th century. It gradually assumed its final appareance at the beginning of the 16th century, between 1511 and 1514. Owing to some unwise work done to its walls, it crumbled onto itself almost unexpectedly on July 14th 1902 about 10 o'clock in the morning. The new tower was inaugurated ten years later, in 1912.

Between the Campanile and the Pool of San Marco opens the Piazzetta of San Marco: in far-off times, it seems that the water came into this space in such a way as to constitute a harbour and to bathe the base of the Campanile and the very foot of the Church of St. Mark. One side of the Piazzetta is occupied by Sansovino Library: this work began in 1537 when the Procurators of San Marco decided to build a new palace by the side of the old hostels and the bakery. Jacopo Sansovino completed the first part of the palace in 1554 and Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1588, after Sansovino's death, took up the work without modifying the original idea. At the 17th arch of the Sansovino Library there is the entrance to the former Palazzo di Zecca (the Mint) now the National Marciana Library (since 1904).