Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco is Venice's principal public square and one of the most celebrated urban spaces in the world. Enclosed on three sides by the Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove, the arcaded Renaissance and Baroque buildings that once housed the offices of the Venetian Republic's procurators, the square opens at its eastern end to the extraordinary facade of St Mark's Basilica. The basilica, begun in the eleventh century to house the relics of the Evangelist, is crowned by Byzantine domes and decorated with mosaics and marble brought from across the Mediterranean. Beside it stands the Doge's Palace, the Gothic seat of Venetian political power for centuries, its loggia and ornate stonework reflected in the waters of the adjacent lagoon.

Visitors to the square today can join a guided walking tour taking in the basilica and the Doge's Palace, follow a self-guided audio tour at their own pace, or use a combined museum pass with skip-the-line access to explore the palace's grand council chambers, prisons, and the rooms where the Republic's magistrates once governed.