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St. Mark's as we see it today is the third church built on the same site
and dedicated to the saint.
The first church was built in 828 as the saint's sepulchre after the Venetians
had stolen his body and brought it from Alexandria. One can only guess
at the form of this church on the basis of few archaeological finds, but
the first St. Mark's was certainly smaller than today's. The modified
structure of that church became the present-day crypt.
In 976 a fire spread from the Ducal Palace to the church, largely destroying
it. A second church was built on the remains.
Construction of the third and last church began in 1063. Modifications
and transformations were protracted over centuries.
We may posit three phases for the third St. Mark's, coherent with political
events and linked with three doges of the Serenissima: Domenico Contarini,
Domenico Selvo and Vitale Falier.
Domenico Contarini gave the go-ahead for building in 1063.
Starting in 1071 Domenico Selvo authorised the start of mosaic decoration
in the unfinished church.
Vitale Falier consecrated it and dedicated it to St. Mark on 8th October
1094.
With this phase completed the church had five lowered cupolas, was rich
in columns, cornices and capitals ordered in Constantinople and was characterised
by a Romanesque language, especially in the brick walls.
The new church's first twenty years were years of ruinous events, great
fires and earthquakes. In this period the pre-existing walls of St. Theodore's
and the Ducal Palace were absorbed into the north and south frontages
to reinforce an insufficiently stable cupola system. In 1177 the doge
Sebastiano Ziani built a terrace on the whole frontage and certainly extended
or completed the west narthex. From the terrace the new St. Mark's Square
could be seen, created after covering over the Rio Batario.
The 13th Century: Glory
With the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 Venice became a leading figure
in the 4th Crusade.
Contact with oriental architecture led the Serenissima to bring its image
into line with the capital's.
The architecture of the 12th century church, recently completed, was short-lived.
In the first decades of the 13th century the great arches of the façade
were faced with slabs of marble. Ships came to Venice with stone materials
gathered on their voyages in the East: columns and capitals, whole marble
complexes were either removed from decaying buildings or purchased by
the Venetians. Most of these "trophies" ended up on the brickwork facade.
The wooden cupolas, roofed with lead, were raised to make them visible
from the sea.
At the end of the 13th century Venice was at the peak of its glory and
commercial power. A church with polychrome marble and mosaics stood in
a red brickwork piazza while the façades of the surrounding buildings
were mostly frescoed.
The 14th Century
The doge Andrea Dandolo (1343 - 1354), was a renowned historiographer
and friend of Petrarch. When he was still a Procurator he decided to build
the baptistery in the first half of the 14th century, occupying an area
believed to have been an ancient open portico between the Ducal Palace
and the church.
In the second half of the century Andrea Dandolo was also responsible
for building the chapel of St. Isadore, at the side of the north transept.
The 15th century
The great fire of 1419 closed the Byzantine and Venetian epoch of the
church, the site now being run by Tuscan stonecutters.
The lunettes in the upper register of the facades were decorated under
the guidance of Nicolò Lamberti.
From 1425 to 1433 the curator was Paolo di Dono, known as Paolo Uccello,
who codified the use of the cartoon in creating mosaics.
In this century the mosaics of the Mascoli Chapel were also created, depicting
scenes from the life of the Virgin.
16th -17th and 18th Centuries
From 1529 to 1570 the curator of St. Mark's was Jacopo Sansovino. To
him we owe the hooping of the cupolas and the buttress system for containing
the thrust of the raised cupolas covered with lead.
He created the altar of the Most Holy in the presbytery, the gate of Paradise,
the statues of the evangelists and the great baptismal font in the baptistery.
During the 17th and 18th centuries large new mosaics were created to
replace the old ones that had fallen into decay, and systematic maintenance
of the church was undertaken.
The 19th Century
The Republic fell in 1797 and Napoleon separated the church from the
Ducal Palace in 1807, assigning it to the patriarch. The ground was laid
for a new life for the church, now no longer ducal chapel but the new
cathedral of Venice.
The monument underwent liturgical adaptation and measures were taken for
its preservation. The first 18th century building intervention involved
Austria in no less than 48 years of activity. The director of works from
1853 to 1866 was the engineer Giovambattista Meduna.
He was succeeded in 1887 by the engineer Pietro Saccardo who remained
until 1902.
Meduna and Saccardo show two sides of how to approach preservation: the
former by replacing deteriorated elements, which was then wholly normal,
and the latter by absolute preservation of everything, in accordance with
the theories of John Ruskin who recognised in the materiality of monuments
the signs of the passion and technical skills of the builders of the past.
Restoration of the south facade, carried out by Meduna from 1865 to
1875, brought the period of replacement to a close and saw the advent
of pure preservation. In 1881 Saccardo established the Mosaic Studio,
still active today, which dealt with preservation of the mosaic decorations..
The 20th century: Collapse of the Campanile
On 14th July 1902, around 10 in the morning, the campanile of St. Mark's
collapsed almost without warning, falling in on itself. After the incident
the new director of works Manfredo Manfredi carried out a rigorous inspection
of all structural aspects of the church. He was aided by Luigi Marangoni
who experimented with restoring mosaics without removing them from their
original position, after having taken down the masonry behind them. This
"restoration from behind" avoids leaving traces of mosaic tesserae that
have been detached and then reapplied.
In 1948 Ferdinando Forlati took over, putting forward new solutions for
reinforcing the pillars. On the suggestion of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli,
first patriarch and later pope John XXIII, he carried out rotation of
the pluteuses inserted in the iconostasis that divides the presbytery
from the nave - a 1394 Gothic masterpiece by the Dalle Masegne brothers
- thus giving full visibility to the liturgical functions.
Today St. Mark's benefits from the experience of two centuries of interventions,
always in the avant-garde with regard to both technology and the history
of restoration in Italy and worldwide.
Through a group of technicians and restorers under the director of works,
the Procuratorate of St. Mark's takes care of every part of the monument,
using both ancient and the most modern techniques to prevent the loss
of this living heritage from a past in which in one acknowledges East
and West.
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