Description
The Campanile of St Mark is the tower that dominates St Mark's Square and all of Venice: 98.6 meters of brick, the tallest structure in the city. Venetians call it “el paròn de casa”, the master of the house. From the top you can see the whole lagoon.
Its shape is simple, a reminder of its origin as a watchtower and lighthouse: a square brick shaft with pilasters, 12 meters on each side and 50 high. Above it, the bell chamber, an attic with the winged lion, and a pyramidal spire.
At the very top stands the gilded Archangel Gabriel, mounted on a swivel, so he is also a weathervane. In the 1300s the spire was gilded: it could be seen from far out in the Adriatic, and sailors greeted it like a star.
At the base, facing the basilica, is the Loggetta of Sansovino, finished in 1546. It used to be a wooden gallery where the nobles waited during sessions of the Great Council. The bell tower is today a reconstruction, and the Loggetta was rebuilt along with it.
The original campanile collapsed on Monday, July 14, 1902, at 9:53 a.m. Cracks had been widening in the shaft for days. Nobody was killed, except the custodian's cat. Venice decided at once to rebuild it, identical.
The bells governed the life of the city: they marked the start and end of the working day and the sessions of government. Of the concert of five bells from 1820, only the Marangona survived, the largest, which set the rhythm of the day for the carpenters of the Arsenal, the “marangoni”.
The trouble, over the centuries, was the wooden spire: lightning, and even a bonfire lit to celebrate a victory over the Genoese, set it on fire several times. After the earthquake of 1511 it was rebuilt in masonry. And in 1609 Galileo Galilei showed his telescope to the Venetian nobles from up here.
Today you go up by elevator, which takes 30 seconds from the ground floor to the bell chamber. During Carnival, long ago, an acrobat would slide down a rope from the top to a boat in the basin: this is the “flight of the angel”, which survives today as the “flight of the dove”.
Each bell had its own signal. One rang at noon and began the break, another, the Renghiera, marked public executions: as early as 1355 it was tied to the treason trial of Doge Marin Falier. On great feast days they all rang together.
Don't miss
• The bell chamber.
• The Loggetta of Sansovino.
• The Marangona.
Did you know?
• The “pietra del bando”, a stump of porphyry column, saved a corner of the basilica from the rubble.
• The new bell tower was inaugurated on April 25, 1912, St Mark's Day, a thousand years after the founding of the old one, according to tradition.
Its shape is simple, a reminder of its origin as a watchtower and lighthouse: a square brick shaft with pilasters, 12 meters on each side and 50 high. Above it, the bell chamber, an attic with the winged lion, and a pyramidal spire.
At the very top stands the gilded Archangel Gabriel, mounted on a swivel, so he is also a weathervane. In the 1300s the spire was gilded: it could be seen from far out in the Adriatic, and sailors greeted it like a star.
At the base, facing the basilica, is the Loggetta of Sansovino, finished in 1546. It used to be a wooden gallery where the nobles waited during sessions of the Great Council. The bell tower is today a reconstruction, and the Loggetta was rebuilt along with it.
The original campanile collapsed on Monday, July 14, 1902, at 9:53 a.m. Cracks had been widening in the shaft for days. Nobody was killed, except the custodian's cat. Venice decided at once to rebuild it, identical.
The bells governed the life of the city: they marked the start and end of the working day and the sessions of government. Of the concert of five bells from 1820, only the Marangona survived, the largest, which set the rhythm of the day for the carpenters of the Arsenal, the “marangoni”.
The trouble, over the centuries, was the wooden spire: lightning, and even a bonfire lit to celebrate a victory over the Genoese, set it on fire several times. After the earthquake of 1511 it was rebuilt in masonry. And in 1609 Galileo Galilei showed his telescope to the Venetian nobles from up here.
Today you go up by elevator, which takes 30 seconds from the ground floor to the bell chamber. During Carnival, long ago, an acrobat would slide down a rope from the top to a boat in the basin: this is the “flight of the angel”, which survives today as the “flight of the dove”.
Each bell had its own signal. One rang at noon and began the break, another, the Renghiera, marked public executions: as early as 1355 it was tied to the treason trial of Doge Marin Falier. On great feast days they all rang together.
Don't miss
• The bell chamber.
• The Loggetta of Sansovino.
• The Marangona.
Did you know?
• The “pietra del bando”, a stump of porphyry column, saved a corner of the basilica from the rubble.
• The new bell tower was inaugurated on April 25, 1912, St Mark's Day, a thousand years after the founding of the old one, according to tradition.