VENICE: St Mark's Square / Piazza San Marco

PIAZZA SAN MARCO, known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza". All other urban spaces in the city (except the Piazzetta San Marco and the Piazzale Roma) are called "campi" (fields).

Basilica di San Marco / St Mark's Basilica
is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge's, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.

Campanile di San Marco / St Mark's Campanile
is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica, one of the most recognizable symbols of the city.

Torre dell'Orologio / St Mark's Clock Tower
Both the tower and the clock date from the last decade of the 15th century, though the mechanism of the clock has subsequently been much altered. To the right of the clock-tower is the closed church of San Basso.

The Procuratie (literally, "procuracies") are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades, the last of them completed, to finish off the square, under Napoleon's occupation. They were built in the early 16th century, formerly the homes and offices of the Procurators of St. Mark, high officers of state in the days of the republic of Venice.
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PIAZZETTA DI SAN MARCO is (strictly speaking) not part of the Piazza but an adjoining open space connecting the south side of the Piazza to the waterway of the lagoon.

Palazzo Ducale / Doge's Palace
was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice, opening as a museum in 1923.

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana / National Library of St Mark's
is one of the earliest surviving public manuscript depositories in the country, holding one of the greatest classical texts collections in the world. The library was provided with a building designed by Jacopo Sansovino. Building started in 1537 and it was extended, after the death of Sansovino, by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1588/91.

Two large granite columns carry symbols of the two patron saints of Venice. The first is Saint Theodore, who was the patron of the city before St Mark, holding a spear and with a crocodile to represent the dragon which he was said to have slain. This is made up of parts of antique statues and is a copy (the original is kept in the Doges Palace). The second (eastern) column has a creature representing a winged lion — the Lion of Venice — which is the symbol of St Mark.

May 21 & 24, 2013

00:00 Piazzetta di San Marco (at 7 AM)
00:27 Lion of Venice
00:37 Biblioteca Marciana, library
00:49 Palazzo Ducale, palace
02:00 Torre dell'Orologio, clock tower
02:45 Campanile di San Marco
03:28 Basilica di San Marco
04:36 Piazzetta/Piazza San Marco at 10 AM (very busy)

More (detailed) videos of Venice:    • ITALY: Venice, city of water  

Due to a copyright claim (that blocked the video), the first song 'Meet You in Heaven' by Armik, was replaced by 'Klama' by Massimo Ferrante.