Venice: St. Mark's Square

Doge's Palace

The Doge's Palace housed the government of Venice's rich and powerful empire.  It also served as the home for the Venetian ruler known as the Doge during 1150-1550.

 Built in the 800's the style is Venetian Gothic- Italian Gothic with an Islamic Flair

 an old gondela in the courtyard

 The courtyard

 Stairway of Giants.  This grand enterence is guarded by Mars (god of war) and Neptune (god of sea)

 Mouth of Truth.  This was a mailbox of sorts.  These were scattered throughout the palace and anyone who had a complaint or suspicion about anyone could accuse him anonymously by dropping a piece of paper in his mouth. 

We went on a Hidden Treasure tour which covered the secret rooms and chambers where the Venetians hide their treasure as well as carry out government business.  We climbed up this hidden narrow staircase to get to the treasure room.

The room with the hidden staircase was meant to look like a bunch of cabinets though many were false.

Our tour guide (the girl) talking about the different treasures that were hidden in this room.  Gold, marble, church relics, etc.

The Doge's had the finest Venetians paint their palace, unfortunately fires destroyed a lot of the artwork in their apartments, but this is one of the few that remained unharmed.  A superstitious Doge asked to have a picture of St. Christopher painted above the door as he exited his apartment, to protect him of any untimely death (this Doge ended up dying of irritable bowel syndrome).

In the waiting room before you enter the Senate Hall is a well known painting: Venice Receiving Neptune

The Hall of the Grand Council.  Venice prided itself on its self-rule, with most power placed in the hands of elected men.  Their government was an elaborate system which made sure no one got too powerful.

I had to take a picture of these next two paintings.  Before arriving in Venice I had no idea how intertwined Italy and Istanbul's history really was.  Venice's most dirty little secret (ok its not really a secret, but one that they are ashamed of) is that of the Siege of Constantinople.  The Venetians were a merchant city.  They heavily relied on trade and thus didn't take political sides with any country.  However during the Fifth Crusade the Venetians built the French a massive fleet of ships.  When the French couldn't pay the Venetians said thats ok help us attack the Turks (who at the time where their friends and allies).  So they attacked Constantinople (Istanbul) by sea to steal their treasures.  

The Golden Staircase, designed to impress visitors, the ceiling is in 24-karat gold.

The Bridge of Sighs.  Connected the Palace to the Prison.  Legend has it that criminals were tried and sentenced in the palace and then marched across the canal to the dark prisons.  On this bridge the prisoners got one last look of Venice.

The view out the window.

The prison. Were the famous Casanova was imprisoned.  It seems odd that the prison would be in the same place as the palace, but this way a doge could oversee the sentencing, torturing, and jailing of his political opponents.

St. Marks Basilica

the lighting makes it horrible to see, but on the terrace are 4 bronze horses that were stolen during the Siege of Constantinople from the Aya Sophya.  

The Church's iron doors were also taken from the Aya Sophya.

St. Mark was the author of one of the Bible Gospels telling the story of Jesus life (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).  His body was in Muslim-occupied Egypt.  In 828 AD two merchants from Venice "rescued" the body and hid it in a pork barrel (which was unclean to Muslims) and ran way to Venice. The city built a church over Mark's bones and made him the patron saint of the city.  His symbol the winged lion is all throughout the city.

Beautiful gold Mosaics

The Basilica's bell tower

Clock Tower