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  1. High water (Acqua Alta) observation cam. Our Venice webcam overlooks the mesmerizing Piazza San Marco and its Basilica, as well as the National Archaeological Museum of Venice. Built in 1557 by Jacopo Sansovino, St. Mark's Square is unarguably considered the city's beating heart and top attraction. Justifiably nicknamed the “Salon of Europe ...

  2. 6 days ago · Piazza San Marco, often called St. Mark’s Square, is one of the most famous landmarks in Venice, Italy. Known for its beauty, history, and cultural significance, this large open square has been the heart of Venetian life for centuries.

  3. Piazza San Marco (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjattsa san ˈmarko]; Venetian: Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza ("the Square"). The Piazzetta ("little Piazza/Square") is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in ...

  4. Aug 3, 2023 · The history of Piazza San Marco dates back to the 9th century, when it was developed as a small square adjoining the original St. Mark's Basilica. Over time, as Venice grew into a maritime and trading powerhouse, the square expanded and transformed into a grand public space. The piazza's layout and dimensions were shaped by the 12th-century ...

    • Overview
    • The Campanile
    • The Old Library

    Before the five arched portals of the basilica lies the Piazza San Marco, a vast paved and arcaded square. Napoleon called the piazza the finest drawing room in Europe. The northern and southern wings of the square are formed by two official buildings, the Old Procurators’ Offices and the New Procurators’ Offices. The buildings now house fashionable shops and elegant cafés, whose string ensembles compete with each other in summer months to attract customers to their open-air tables. At the basilica end of the Old Procurators’ building stands the Clock Tower, a late 14th-century structure where the hours are struck by two Moorish figures.

    Tourists throng the square at all hours, outnumbered only by gluttonous pigeons. The Clock Tower rises over the entrance to the Merceria, the main shopping street leading to the Rialto, and stands in a direct line of sight to the columns on the Molo, at the end of the piazzetta. This sight line is emphasized by three flagpoles fronting the basilica and by Sansovino’s Loggetta (“Small Loggia” or “Small Gallery”) at the base of the Campanile.

    The Campanile, the massive 324-foot (99-metre) bell tower of the basilica, is a free-standing, slightly rectangular structure sheathed in Venetian red-clay brick. Soaring above the pinnacles of San Marco, it dominates the townscape and is visible for miles across the lagoon. In 1902 it collapsed, making a fortune for the photographer who captured the event. The city council decided immediately to rebuild it around a core of reinforced concrete, and the work was completed by 1912. Today an elevator brings tourists to the belfry, which is made of white Istrian limestone and is open on all four sides, affording a spectacular panorama of the island, the mainland, and the sea.

    At the base of the Campanile is the Loggetta, a colonnaded portico designed by Sansovino. Constructed of red Verona marble and embellished with white marble of Carrara, verde antique (a mottled green marble), and white Istrian limestone, the Loggetta was intended to serve as a suitable backdrop for Venetian noblemen to gather before processing in state to the Doges’ Palace. It was crushed by the collapse of the Campanile in 1902 but was meticulously restored using its original materials. The Loggetta now serves as a foyer for tourists waiting to use the bell tower’s elevator.

    The Campanile stands close to the 21 bays of the Old Library (1529, also called the National Marcian Library or the Library of St. Mark), on the western side of the piazzetta. The library was designed by Sansovino to house a great collection of humanist texts and manuscripts bequeathed in 1468 to the republic by Bessarion, Latin patriarch of Consta...

  5. Piazza San Marco is the city’s main public square and contains its most famous buildings such as St Mark’s Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Napoleon called it “the world’s most beautiful drawing room”. Piazza San Marco is in the heart of Venice.It is 590 ft (180 m) long and 230 ft (70 m) wide, and is the only “piazza” in Venice ...

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  7. View Live Webcam. Location Information: Piazza San Marco (often known in English as Saint Mark's Square), is the principal square of Venice, Italy. A remark often attributed to Napoleon (but perhaps more correctly to Alfred de Musset) calls the Piazza San Marco "The drawing room of Europe". It is one of the few great urban spaces in a Europe ...

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