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Titian Inn Group
Hotel Venice Airport
Hotel Treviso
HISTORICAL CENTER: SAN MARCO'S SQUARE
Living room of Europe
Called by Napoleon "Living room of Europe ", San Mark's Square in Venice is the only (all the others are called fields) known throughout the world for its incomparable beauty as to be likened to a huge marble hall in the sky open. Trapezoidal in shape, San Mark's Square is composed of three areas: the Square enclosed old Procuratie, new and newest and the majestic Basilica of San Marco, the Piazzetta, the part in front of the Ducal Palace and the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, and Piazzetta dei Leoncini which is located beside the Basilica of San Marco.
The current shape of San Mark's Square is the result of several modifications and expansions over the years suffered from the beautiful square where we know that was not an area intended to garden and mostly under water of the river Batario that crossed the square.
It is with the finding of the corpse of St. Mark and its place in the chapel in the Palazzo Ducale (then fitted with a castle towers) in 829, that the square began to assume importance.
But most significant changes occurred between 900 and 1200 to reflect the transformation that had Venice in those years following the wealth and the importance acquired by trade with the East.
The palace was enlarged, the stream that ran through the square was filled and and proceeded to fill the floor with bricks with herringbone (for the original floor we must wait until 1700). The size of the Piazza San Marco became essentially what is now also was erected the tower originally served as an observation and control of the Venetian lagoon and the two columns were placed at the end of the Piazzetta one dominated by San Marco and the other dominated by St. Theodore, the first patron of Venice, which still face the San Marco basin. But it is between '500 and '600 that the square undergoes a series of interventions that are organic look more like the square that we know now:they were finally completed the facade of the Basilica and the Ducal Palace, were erected the Clock Tower and Procuratie old and then, thanks to the fundamental imprint of Sansovino, are made to the Library and at the foot of the Campanile Loggetta. The decision by Sansovino to start the built of the Library to the Piazzetta near the Bell Tower, modified the design of the square, forcing the construction of new buildings on the opposite side of the Old Procuratie to replace the home placed in that side certainly don't embellished the Square and especially that aspect did not give the same monumental needs for a commercially important city like Venice. Designed by Scaramozzi gave the begin for the works on the new Procuratie.
The final aspect of the Mark area was in the early nineteenth century with the building of Procuratie-new.
In 1902 the Basilica of San Marco was in danger of being overwhelmed by the fall of the Campanile of San Marco which collapsed destroying the Library and the Loggia. It was nevertheless decided to rebuild immediately "as it was and where it was" giving St. Mark's final appearance that we all know and love.
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For further information, tourist guides and special offers, the staff of the Hotel is at your disposal at the following phone number +39.041.5416846 or by e-mail venice@titianinn.com
