St. Mark's Square
| St. Mark's Square, Piazza San Marco |
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 St. Mark's Square |
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| Basic data | |
| place | Venice |
| District | San Marco |
| Created | 9th century |
| Newly designed | 1723 (paving) |
| Buildings | St. Mark · Doge's Palace · Campanile |
| use | |
| User groups | Foot traffic |
| Technical specifications | |
| Square area | ~ 14,500 m² |
The Piazza San Marco ( Italian Piazza San Marco) is the most important and most famous square in Venice .
St. Mark's Square is 175 m long and up to 82 m wide and is the only square in the city that is called piazza . The other squares in Venice are called campi (from Italian campo , the field) because they were not originally paved. Alfred de Musset called St. Mark's Square the “Salon of Europe”. The square, which is located in the sixth of San Marco in the city , is characterized by the facade of St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco) and its campanile and is surrounded by the old and new proxy offices . As an extension through the so-called Piazzetta, it extends to the Doge's Palace and opens up to the water, the Bacino di San Marco , with the start of the Grand Canal . In front of the Markuskirche there have been three ship masts since 1480, on which the Markus banner flies on Sundays and holidays.
Since the square rises only a little above sea level, it is repeatedly flooded during high tide. Like almost the entire city center, the square is a single large pedestrian zone. The “most beautiful ballroom in Europe”, as Napoleon called it, is populated by tourists, photographers and pigeons .
history
The topography of the square, as it appeared in the early Middle Ages, could be partially reconstructed. The coast therefore ran further north, i.e. closer to the Doge's Palace, with the area of the Molo being a gently sloping coastline until at least the 13th century. In addition, a canal discovered at the Biblioteca Marciana in 1888/89, the Rio Batario, turned out to be a waterway that ran across the square until it was filled in in the 12th century. Investigations under the library and under the square uncovered traces of settlement from the 2nd half of the 7th century.
The square dates from the 9th century, when a small open space was created in front of a modest St. Mark's Church. Since that time it has been the place for the announcements and state acts of the city administration (see: Doge ) as well as for the numerous celebrations of the population, for example the Carnival of Venice .
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The market square in its current form is the result of urban planning measures between 1200 and 1600 that were far apart in time.
829 began with the construction of a small Holy Sepulcher for the remains of St. Mark at the 11th and 12th Doge. According to legend, the bones of the Evangelist from Alexandria (Egypt) were kidnapped to Venice. A church was built for them in the immediate vicinity of an existing Doge's fort on the site of today's Doge's palace. In 976 the fort, church and around 300 houses burned down completely. The resulting free space was used by Doge Pietro I. Orseolo to rearrange the area.
It got its current size after 1156 when the course of the Rio Batario was filled in in the west and a landing stage between the square and the Doge's Palace . Between 1172 and 1178 it was expanded to the west under Doge Sebastiano Ziani and it was already shown as a representative center of the city-republic in 1177, when Emperor Friedrich I visited the city. From 1267 the square was paved. In 1340 it was decided to rebuild the Doge's Palace, which was rebuilt in its old form after the devastating fire of 1577. The current outline of the piazza and piazzetta was only finally determined by the buildings of the 16th century.
Since 1722 the square has been covered by a pavement made of trachyte according to a design by Andrea Tirali , with a lighter geometric pattern added to the darker underground, which makes the square appear longer. Before that, like the Piazza del Campo in Siena , it was covered with a herringbone-like brick pavement, which can still be seen in the paintings by Canaletto and Bellini .
building
Starting on the Grand Canal, counterclockwise, the following buildings are located on the square: the Doge's Palace , the Porta della Carta (the link to the adjoining St. Mark's Basilica ), the clock tower, the Procuratie Vecchie , the Napoleonic wing of the Procuraties, the Procuratie Nove , the Campanile with the Loggetta and the Biblioteca Marciana .
Porta della Carta
The gatehouse to the Doge's Palace (Italian: Palazzo Ducale) , the Porta della Carta , also known as the porta aurea because of its lush gilding , was built between 1438 and 1442 under the direction of Giovanni and Bartolomeo Buon. It opens the entrance to the Scala dei Giganti, where the splendid spectacle of the Doge's coronation was staged. The sculpture by the client, Francesco Foscari, is located above the portal. The doge kneels in front of Venice, represented by the winged lion of St. Mark .
clock tower
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The clock tower (Torre dell'Orologio) itself was built between 1496 and 1499 by Mauro Codussi , the adjacent wing structures (1502–1506) were made by Pietro Lombardo and a third floor was added in 1755 by the architect Giorgio Massari . The astronomical clock with its dial made of lapis lazuli shows the phases of the moon and the sun and the signs of the zodiac. Two huge bronze figures strike the hours on a bronze bell.
In terms of urban planning, the confluence with the Merceria is emphasized by the tower ; on the other hand, it is the end point of a line of sight from the lake side of the square, which visually connects the piazza and the piazzetta.
In the Prince-Alfred-Courtyard of the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta, there is a clock with carillon based on the Venetian original on a tower with the Pinto-de-Fonseca clock. The carillon later served as a model for that of the Krochhochhaus in Leipzig (1927/28).
Procuraties
The north, south and west sides of the square are framed by the Prokuratien, former administrative buildings of the republic. The old proxy offices in the north were built after the fire of a previous building from 1514 under the direction of Bartolomeo Buon . The new proxy offices were built from 1583 under the direction of Vincenzo Scamozzi and from 1616 to 1640 under Baldassare Longhena . The square that was once rectangular has now been given a trapezoidal shape. The connecting bar on the west side - ala napoleonica - is a 19th century building. At the instigation of the French occupying forces, the church of San Geminiano , which previously closed off the square, with the facade by Sansovino, was demolished in order to create space for a new building that was adapted to the architecture of the proxy offices.
On the ground floor of the building you will find small shops and cafes, including the two most famous cafes in Venice, the Gran Caffè Quadri , Lavena and the Caffè Florian , which opened in 1683, making it the oldest café in Europe.
The procuraties house the Museo Correr and the Archaeological Museum of Venice.
Campanile
The free-standing Markus Tower is the campanile, the bell tower of the Church of San Marco . The brick building with the elements of light Istrian stone characteristic of Venice was built on an older foundation and completed in the 12th century. It served the seafarers as a permanent landmark and, if necessary, could serve as a lighthouse at night through a fire. The tower was damaged several times by earthquakes or the outbreak of fire. After 1500, after being destroyed by a lightning strike, the upper floor of the tower was crowned with a pyramid-like helmet, on which a figure made of gilded copper of the Archangel Gabriel was erected. As a result, the number of lightning bolts that struck the tower increased until a lightning rod was installed in 1776. On July 14, 1902, the tower collapsed without injuring anyone; then it was completely rebuilt in its old form, i.e. as a reconstruction : dov'era e com'era 'where and how it was'.
Loggetta
The loggetta at the foot of the Campanile was built by Sansovino between 1537 and 1540 . It served as a meeting place for the patricians of the city. In the reliefs and sculptures, the Republic of Venice with all its virtues - skill in war and trade , political harmony, eloquence of its protagonists - is glorified and its love of peace and the special protection of the evangelist Mark are shown. When the campanile collapsed, parts of their figurines were destroyed.
Biblioteca Marciana
Sansovino added the Biblioteca Marciana building to the new power of attorney; it architecturally connects the piazzetta with St. Mark's Square.
Olivetti showroom
From 1957 to 1958, Olivetti had the Venetian Carlo Scarpa built an exhibition space at St. Mark's Square 101. In 2006 this shop was restored by the company and, together with the exhibited products, was set back as a museum in the 1950s.
Piazzetta
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The part between the Doge's Palace, Biblioteca Marciana and the lagoon, somewhat separated from the rest of the square, is called the Piazzetta San Marco . The piazzetta (small square, from Italian piazza , "square") is dominated by the two columns dedicated to Venice's city saints, Markus (Marco) and Theodorus (Todaro); On the pillars there is therefore the lion of St. Mark and the statue of San Todaro (posing with Todaro on a crocodile). State guests were received and executions carried out here, but gamblers also went about their business here.
Beyond the water surface formed by the Canal Grande (here as Bacino di San Marco) is the Punta della Dogana next to the Santa Maria della Salute built by Baldassare Longhena . In addition, the old customs house of Venice (Dogana da Mar) , built by Giuseppe Benoni in 1678–1682 , whose tower supports a globe supported by atlases (for its original meaning see here ).
gallery
St. Mark's Square before the demolition of the Church of San Gemignano (painting by Guardi , after 1776/77)
The Piazzetta (watercolor by Heinrich Ludwig Philippi, 1864)
literature
- Eva Rita Lehni: Studies on Lorenzo Santi (1783-1839). The redesign of the Piazza San Marco in Venice and the new buildings under Lorenzo Santi from 1815 to 1839. Venice 1983.
- Piazza San Marco. l'architettura la storia le funzioni. Marsilio Editori, Venice 1970, 3rd edition 1982.
- A midday on the Marcusthurm in Venice . In: The Gazebo . Issue 22, 1866, pp. 340–343 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - with illustration by Paul Thumann ).
Web links
- "Virtual Reality" representation of the square
- Website about the clock tower on St. Mark's Square with historical pictures
- Jan-Christoph Rößler: Piazza San Marco
- St. Mark's Square on the ETHorama platform
Individual evidence
- ^ AJ Ammerman, Maurizia de Min, R. Housley, CE McClennen: More on the origins of Venice . In: Antiquity , 69/264 (September 1995), pp. 501-510, here: p. 508.
- ↑ Jan-Christoph Rößler: Piazza San Marco. Retrieved February 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Gerhard Ullmann: The Piazza, a southern attitude towards life. In: the scales. Magazine of Grünenthal GmbH, Aachen. Volume 36, 1997, No. 1, pp. 30-37, here: p. 31.
Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 2 ″ N , 12 ° 20 ′ 15 ″ E