St. Mark's Square is one of the most beautiful squares in Italy and is located in Venezia. In Venice, only Piazza San Marco is defined as a square as all the other architectural spaces are called campo. Piazza San Marco is the symbolic place of the Republic of Venice, has a trapezoidal shape and is about 170 meters long.
Piazza San Marco can be visited all year round and you don't have to pay a ticket to enter.
The Doge's Palace was the seat of the government and the supreme magistracies of the Republic, as well as a prison. Between the two columns of Marco and Teodoro, the executions, while the laws and decrees were announced from the Pietra del Bando, which were then posted on the Porta della Carta. The Basilica was instead the center of state religious ceremonies thanks to the presence of precious relics and its function as a ducal chapel, in a system in which in 'bogie he was head of the Venetian church and reserved the right to appoint bishops.
To get to Piazza San Marco by vaporetto from Piazzale Roma or from the station you can take the lines 1 and 2 and get off at the “Vallaresso” stop. To go to Piazza San Marco from the Tronchetto it is better to take the vaporetto line 2.
Also i taxi of Venice to get close to Piazza San Marco, but their price is less economical than that of public transport. To go walk to Piazza San Marco from the station, follow the directions for Lista di Spagna- Strada Nuova-Campo San Bartolomeo-Mercerie (journey time about 40 minutes). To get there by walking in Piazza San Marco from Piazzale Roma you can do the same itinerary, first crossing the Constitution Bridge, or heading towards Campo Santa Margherita-Ponte Accademia-Campo Santo Stefano-Via 22 Marzo (about 40 min.). From Rialto you can reach Piazza San Marco along the Mercerie with a comfortable walk of about 10 minutes.
A little bit of history about Piazza San Marco it is good to read it before visiting the beautiful square. In ancient times Piazza San Marco did not have that sumptuous aspect that we can admire today. Rather than a square it it was a vegetable garden owned by the nuns of S. Zaccaria which was donated to the doge Giovanni Partecipazio I in 829. The original Piazza San Marco was crossed by a channels named Rio Batario and it had two churches at its ends, one to the east was dedicated to S. Teodoro (the first patron saint of the city) and another to the west was dedicated to S. Geminiano. Only at the beginning of the 828th century was the Church of San Marco built in the square, following the translation of the body of the evangelist, stolen from Alexandria in Egypt, in XNUMX.
Piazza San Marco was enlarged around the year 1172, thanks to the interviews wanted by the Doge Sebastiano Ziani, doubling its surface and burying the canal that crossed it. Standing in the center of Piazza San Marco and looking towards the basilica, you can see the following buildings in a clockwise direction: the St Mark's Campanile, the Procuratie Nuove, the Napoleonic Wing, the Procuratie Vecchie, the Clock tower, the Patriarchal Palace and of course the St. Mark's Church.
