Editing Piazza San Marco (section)

==Description==
{| align=left
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| [[Image:Quadri-Moretti, Piazza San Marco (1831), 01.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Plan of the Piazza and Piazzetta.]]
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{{Multiple image
| align             = 
| direction         = vertical
| total_width       = 271
| image1            = St Mark's Square.jpg
| caption1          = Piazza San Marco
| image2            = Venice - St. Marc's Basilica 01.jpg
| caption2          = Western façade of [[St Mark's Basilica]]
}}

The square<ref>General detailed description of the Piazza in Macadam pp. 63ff</ref> is dominated at its eastern end by [[St Mark's Basilica]]. It is described here by a perambulation starting from the west front of the church (facing the length of the piazza) and proceeding to the right.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

St Mark's Basilica has a western façade with great arches and marble decoration, Romanesque carvings around the central doorway, and four horses which preside over the whole piazza. The four horses are potent symbols of pride and power in Venice. In 1379, the Genoese said there could be no peace between the two cities until these horses had been bridled.<ref>{{cite book|first=Frederic C.|last=Lane|author-link=Frederic C. Lane|title=Venice, A Maritime City |publisher=Johns Hopkins U.P.|year=1997|page=192}}</ref> Four hundred years later, Napoleon, after he had conquered Venice, had them taken down and shipped to Paris.<ref>{{cite book|first=Margaret |last=Plant|title=Venice, Fragile City |publisher=Yale U.P. 2004|page=36}}</ref>

The [[Piazzetta dei Leoncini]] is an open space on the north side of the church named after the two marble lions (presented by Doge Alvise Mocenigo in 1722), but now officially called the Piazzetta San Giovanni XXIII. The neo-classic building on the east side adjoining the Basilica is the Palazzo Patriarcale, the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Beyond that is [[St Mark's Clocktower]] (''Torre dell'Orologio''), completed in 1499, above a high archway where the street known as the Merceria (a main thoroughfare of the city) leads through shopping streets to the [[Rialto]], the commercial and financial centre. To the right of the clock-tower is the closed church of San Basso, designed by [[Baldassarre Longhena]] (1675), sometimes open for exhibitions.<ref>Macadam p. 80.</ref>

To the left is the long arcade along the north side of the piazza, the buildings on this side are known as the [[Procuratie Vecchie]], the old procuracies, formerly the homes and offices of the [[Procurator of San Marco|Procurators of St Mark]], high officers of state in the days of the republic of Venice. They were built in the early 16th century. The arcade is lined with shops and restaurants at ground level, with offices above. The restaurants include the famous [[Caffè Quadri]], which was patronized by the Austrians when Venice was ruled by Austria in the 19th century, while the Venetians preferred Florian's on the other side of the piazza.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Turning left at the end, the arcade continues along the west end of the piazza, which was rebuilt by Napoleon about 1810 and is known as the Ala Napoleonica (Napoleonic Wing). It holds, behind the shops, a ceremonial staircase which was to have led to a royal palace but now forms the entrance to the [[Museo Correr]] (Correr Museum).{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

[[File:Venezia Basilica di San Marco Campanile 3.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Western face of the campanile seen from the piazza|alt=]]
[[File:Horses of Basilica San Marco bright.jpg|thumb|The original [[Horses of Saint Mark]] located inside St Mark's Basilica (with modern replicas located outside)|alt=|left]]
Turning left again, the arcade continues down the south side of the Piazza. The buildings on this side are known as the [[Procuratie Nuove]] (new procuracies), which were designed by [[Jacopo Sansovino]] in the mid-16th century but partly built (1582–86) after his death by Vincenzo Scamozzi apparently with alterations required by the procurators and finally completed by Baldassarre Longhena about 1640.<ref>Macadam p. 80. See also Deborah Howard: Jacopo Sansovino (1975) pp. 15–16</ref> Again, the ground floor has shops and also the [[Caffè Florian]], a famous cafe opened in 1720 by Floriano Francesconi, which was patronised by the Venetians when the hated Austrians were at Quadri's. The upper floors were intended by Napoleon to be a palace for his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, his viceroy in Venice, and now houses the Museo Correr. At the far end the Procuratie meet the north end of Sansovino's Libreria (mid-16th century), whose main front faces the piazzetta and is described there. The arcade continues round the corner into the Piazzetta.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Opposite to this, standing free in the piazza, is [[St Mark's Campanile]] (1156–73 last restored in 1514), rebuilt in 1912 ''com'era, dov'era'' ("as it was, where it was") after the collapse of the former campanile on 14 July 1902. Adjacent to the campanile, facing towards the church, is the small building known as the [[Loggetta del Sansovino]], built by Sansovino in 1537–46 and used as a lobby by patricians waiting to go into a meeting of the Great Council in the [[Doge's Palace]] and by guards when the council was sitting.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Across the piazza in front of the church are three large mast-like flagpoles with bronze bases decorated in high relief by [[Alessandro Leopardi]] in 1505. The Venetian flag of St Mark used to fly from them in the time of the republic of Venice and now shares them with the Italian flag.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

<gallery class="center" heights="150" widths="170" caption="In the Piazza San Marco">
File:Venezia-Piazza di S. Marco colle Procuratie vecchie e nuove LCCN2002716889.jpg|[[Procuratie Vecchie]] and [[Procuratie Nuove]], 1890
File:Venezia (29068150156).jpg|The Piazza seen from the Campanile
File:Venezia Basilica di San Marco Terrasse Blick auf den Torre dell'Orologio 1.jpg|The [[St Mark's Clocktower|Clocktower]] with the archway into the Mercerie leading to the Rialto
File:Loggetta of Campanile di San Marco, Venice, Italy.jpg|The [[Loggetta del Sansovino|Loggetta]] at the foot of the Campanile (built by Sansovino 1537–46); rebuilt after the fall of Campanile in 1902
File:Piazza San Marco Venice Italy (104466311).jpeg|Piazza San Marco at night
</gallery>

<gallery class="center" heights="150" widths="170">
File:Quadri-Moretti, Piazza San Marco (1831), 06.jpg|Elevation of the Procuratie Vecchie ({{Nowrap|{{Circa|1520}}}}), print from Quadri-Moretti (1831)
File:Quadri-Moretti, Piazza San Marco (1831), 10.jpg|Elevation of the Procuratie Nuove ({{Nowrap|{{Circa|1580}}}}), print from Quadri-Moretti (1831)
File:Procuratie vecie in piazza San Marco a Venezia.jpg|Procuratie Vecchie built by Bartolomeo Bon the Younger ({{Nowrap|{{Circa|1520}}}})
File:Procuratie vecie dettaglio finestre a Venezia.jpg|Detail of the windows of Procurate Vecchie
File:Procuratie Nuove in Piazza San Marco, Venice during carnival Feb 1993.jpg|Procuratie Nuove built by Vincenzo Scamozzi ({{Nowrap|{{Circa|1580}}}}) adapting a design by Sansovino (during Carnival 1993)
File:St Mark's Square bell tower.jpg|[[St Mark's Campanile]] (''Campanile di San Marco'')
File:Vrbs Venetvm vt nvlli cedit sic clarivs vllvm ne mihi tv qvaeso dixeris esse forvm.jpg|View from the Piazzetta (1585)
</gallery>