the building
St Mark's Basilica: nine centuries of mosaic
From a church consecrated in 1094 to the gold ceiling a small group stands under tonight.
Reserve your evening inside St Mark's ↗The basilica, by date
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 1063 | Construction begins on the third church on this site |
| 1094 | The basilica is consecrated; St Mark's relics placed in a new crypt |
| 1105 | The Pala d'Oro is installed behind the high altar |
| 1270s–1290s | The interior mosaic is substantially finished |
| 1419 & 1439 | Fires damage sections later restored by Renaissance masters |
| 1835 | St Mark's relics move from the crypt to the high altar |
A third church on the site
The basilica standing today replaced two earlier churches, with construction beginning around 1063 and the building consecrated on 8 October 1094.
Five domes sheathed in gold
Rather than paint the domes, Venice's builders covered them in mosaic, their inner curves rising close to 30 metres above the floor — a surface that still throws light back rather than absorbing it.
Finished by the 1290s
Most of the interior mosaic was complete by the 1270s, with work in the narthex continuing into the 1290s, using methods and gold-ground tesserae drawn from Byzantine workshops.
Two fires, and Renaissance repairs
Fires in 1419 and 1439 damaged parts of the mosaic, later restored by Renaissance painters including Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno working to the existing Byzantine scheme.
The crypt, before 1835
From the 1094 consecration, St Mark's relics rested in the crypt below the altar; they were moved up into the high altar itself in 1835, which is why the crypt the tours visit is a historic resting place rather than the relics' current one.
What you're standing under tonight
The gold ground overhead is substantially the mosaic Venetians saw finished in the 1290s, patched after the two 15th-century fires but never replaced wholesale.