St. Mark's Basilica When the Gold Mosaics Catch the Afternoon

St. Mark's Basilica When the Gold Mosaics Catch the Afternoon

St. Mark's Basilica is not a typical church. It is the private chapel of the Doge of Venice, built in 1063 to house the stolen relics of St. Mark (smuggled from Alexandria in a barrel of pork to deter Muslim customs inspectors), and decorated over the following centuries with 8,000 square meters of gold mosaic that makes the interior glow like the inside of a jewel box. The mosaics depict the entire Bible in images that were designed to be read by candlelight, and in the afternoon, when the sun hits the west-facing windows and the gold catches fire, the building becomes the most overwhelming visual experience in Italy.

The Pala d'Oro behind the high altar — a gold altarpiece set with 1,300 pearls, 400 garnets, 300 emeralds, and assorted rubies and amethysts — is the single most valuable object in Venice and the proof that the Republic's wealth was not exaggerated.

What visitors miss: The loggia on the second floor, accessible for a small fee, puts you at eye level with the mosaics and provides a terrace view over Piazza San Marco that makes the crowds below look like a painting. The four bronze horses on the loggia are copies; the originals — looted from Constantinople in 1204 — are in the museum inside, and they are 2,000 years old and still magnificent.