San Marco, Rome

Façade of the basilica. To the right, Palazzo Venezia, the former see of the embassy of the Republic of Venice, whose protector was St. Mark.

San Marco is a basilica in Rome dedicated to St. Mark located in the small Piazza di San Marco adjoining Piazza Venezia. It was built in 336 by Pope Mark and rebuilt in 833 by Pope Gregory IV.

History

In 336, Pope Mark built a church devoted to one of the Evangelists, his name bearer St. Mark, in a place called ad Pallacinas. The church is thus recorded as Titulus Marci in the 499 synod of Pope Symmachus. [At that time it became one of the stational churches of the city (Monday of the third week in Lent)].

After a restoration in 792 by Pope Adrian I, the church was rebuilt by Pope Gregory IV in 833.

Madama Lucrezia is one of the "talking statues" of Rome, and is located next to the basilica entrance. It was once the bust of a statue of the goddess Isis, to whom a temple was dedicated in Rome not far from its current location.

Besides the addition of a Romanesque belltower in 1154, the major change in the architecture of the church was ordered by Pope Paul II in 1465-70, when the inside and the outside of the church were restyled according to the Renaissance taste. On that occasion the church was assigned to the Venetian people living in Rome, Paul II being a Venetian of birth.

The last major reworking of the basilica was started in 1654-57 and completed by Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini in 1735-50. With these restorations, the church received its current Baroque decoration.

Artworks

The façade (1466) was built with marbles taken from the Colosseum and the Theatre of Marcellus, and is attributed to Leon Battista Alberti.

The inside is clearly Baroque. However, the basilica shows noteworthy elements of all her millenary history:

• the apse mosaics, dating back to Pope Gregory, show the pope, with the squared halo of a living person, offering a model of the church to Christ, in the presence of Mark the Evangelist, Pope Saint Mark and other saints;
• the wooden ceiling, with the emblem of Pope Paul II, is one of only two original 15th century wooden ceilings in Rome, together with the one at Santa Maria Maggiore;
• the tomb of Leonardo Pesaro (1796) by Antonio Canova.

References

Bibliography

• Roma, collection "L'Italia", Touring Editore, 2004, Milano.

Notes

See also

• Churches of Rome