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144-597: Piazza San Marco ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjattsa san ˈmarko] ; Venetian : Piasa San Marco ), often known in English as St Mark's Square , is the principal public square of Venice , Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza ("the Square"). The Piazzetta ("little Piazza/Square") is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in its southeast corner (see plan). The two spaces together form

288-710: A literary language , Venetian was overshadowed by Dante Alighieri 's Tuscan dialect (the best known writers of the Renaissance, such as Petrarch , Boccaccio and Machiavelli , were Tuscan and wrote in the Tuscan language) and languages of France like the Occitano-Romance languages and the langues d'oïl including the mixed Franco-Venetian . Even before the demise of the Republic, Venetian gradually ceased to be used for administrative purposes in favor of

432-579: A column on which the so-called Tetrarchs stood. Across the water (the Bacino di San Marco ) at the end of the Piazzetta can be seen the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and the brilliant white façade of Palladio's church there. The history of the Piazza San Marco can be conveniently covered in four periods, but the only pre-renaissance buildings and monuments still standing there are St Mark's,

576-645: A compensation for the fact that the 2nd- and 3rd-person inflections for most verbs, which are still distinct in Italian and many other Romance languages, are identical in Venetian. The Piedmontese language also has clitic subject pronouns, but the rules are somewhat different. The function of clitics is particularly visible in long sentences, which do not always have clear intonational breaks to easily tell apart vocative and imperative in sharp commands from exclamations with "shouted indicative". For instance, in Venetian

720-474: A continuous arcade of stilted (i.e. tall and narrow) Byzantine arches below and a single storey above, with two windows above each arch. The ground floor rooms were let out for shops to provide an income. These buildings remained in place for about 300 years and we can see exactly how they looked in 1496 in Gentile Bellini's painting of a procession in the piazza. This painting also shows the buildings on

864-465: A great mystery". In 1438 a contract was made with Giovanni and Bartolomeo Buon for the construction of a great ceremonial doorway into the palace. This was the Porta della Carta and connected the newly constructed wing of the palace with the south wall of St Mark's. Giovanni was nearing the end of his life and the gateway is mainly the work of Bartolomeo. It was completed by 1442 and included a sculpture of

1008-531: 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. To the left is the long arcade along the north side of the piazza, the buildings on this side are known as

1152-482: A nasal, whereas Italian only uses [ ŋ ] before velar stops: e.g. [kaŋˈtaɾ] "to sing", [iŋˈvɛɾno] "winter", [ˈoŋzaɾ] "to anoint", [ɾaŋˈdʒaɾse] "to cope with". Speakers of Italian generally lack this sound and usually substitute a dental [ n ] for final Venetian [ ŋ ] , changing for example [maˈniŋ] to [maˈnin] and [maˈɾiŋ] to [maˈrin] . An accented á

1296-639: A new church to be built. This first church of St Mark was begun on the south side of the existing chapel; by 836 construction was sufficiently advanced for the relics to be moved there. The design of the church was based on the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople and it seems to have covered the same area as the central part of the present church. A campanile was first built in the time of Doge Pietro Tribuno (888–91). At that time there

1440-473: A special interrogative verbal flexion used for direct questions, which also incorporates a redundant pronoun: Reflexive tenses use the auxiliary verb avér ("to have"), as in English, the North Germanic languages , Catalan, Spanish, Romanian and Neapolitan; instead of èssar ("to be"), which would be normal in Italian. The past participle is invariable, unlike Italian: Another peculiarity of

1584-427: A weakened or lenited ("evanescent") ⟨l⟩ , which in some orthographic norms is indicated with the letter ⟨ ł ⟩ or ⟨ ƚ ⟩ ; in more conservative dialects, however, ⟨l⟩ and ⟨ł⟩ are merged as ordinary [ l ] . In those dialects that have both types, the precise phonetic realization of ⟨ł⟩ depends both on its phonological environment and on

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1728-405: Is a "semi-analytical" verbal flexion, with a compulsory clitic subject pronoun before the verb in many sentences, echoing the subject as an ending or a weak pronoun. Independent/emphatic pronouns (e.g. ti ), on the contrary, are optional. The clitic subject pronoun ( te, el/ła, i/łe ) is used with the 2nd and 3rd person singular, and with the 3rd person plural. This feature may have arisen as

1872-635: Is adjacent to a front vowel ( ⟨i e⟩ ). In dialects further inland ⟨ł⟩ may be realized as a partially vocalised ⟨l⟩ . Thus, for example, góndoła 'gondola' may sound like góndoea [ˈɡoŋdoe̯a] , góndola [ˈɡoŋdola] , or góndoa [ˈɡoŋdoa] . In dialects having a null realization of intervocalic ⟨ł⟩ , although pairs of words such as scóła , "school" and scóa , "broom" are homophonous (both being pronounced [ˈskoa] ), they are still distinguished orthographically. Venetian, like Spanish, does not have

2016-630: Is also spoken in North and South America by the descendants of Italian immigrants. Notable examples of this are Argentina and Brazil , particularly the city of São Paulo and the Talian dialect spoken in the Brazilian states of Espírito Santo , São Paulo , Paraná , Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina . In Mexico , the Chipilo Venetian dialect is spoken in the state of Puebla and

2160-673: 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. Beyond that is St Mark's Clocktower ( Torre dell'Orologio ), completed in 1499, above

2304-588: Is kept in the Doge's Palace). The second (eastern) column has a creature representing a winged lion – the Lion of Venice – which is the symbol of St Mark. This has a long history, probably starting as a winged lion-griffin on a monument to the god Sandon at Tarsus in Cilicia (Southern Turkey) about 300 BC. The columns are now thought to have been erected about 1268, when the water was closer and they would have been on

2448-405: Is now pronounced either as [ dz ] (Italian voiced-Z ), or more typically as [ z ] (Italian voiced-S , written ⟨x⟩ , as in el pianxe ); in a few dialects the sound appears as [ d ] and may therefore be written instead with the letter ⟨d⟩ , as in el piande . Some varieties of Venetian also distinguish an ordinary [ l ] vs.

2592-673: Is one of the Italo-Dalmatian languages and most closely related to Istriot on the one hand and Tuscan – Italian on the other. Some authors include it among the Gallo-Italic languages , and according to others, it is not related to either one. Although both Ethnologue and Glottolog group Venetian into the Gallo-Italic languages, the linguists Giacomo Devoto and Francesco Avolio and the Treccani encyclopedia reject

2736-454: Is pronounced as [ ɐ ], (an intervocalic / u / could be pronounced as a [ w ] sound). While written Venetian looks similar to Italian, it sounds very different, with a distinct lilting cadence, almost musical. Compared to Italian, in Venetian syllabic rhythms are more evenly timed, accents are less marked, but on the other hand tonal modulation is much wider and melodic curves are more intricate. Stressed and unstressed syllables sound almost

2880-593: Is pronounced the same as Castilian Spanish cena (which has the same meaning). The voiceless interdental fricative occurs in Bellunese, north-Trevisan, and in some Central Venetian rural areas around Padua, Vicenza and the mouth of the river Po . Because the pronunciation variant [ θ ] is more typical of older speakers and speakers living outside of major cities, it has come to be socially stigmatized, and most speakers now use [ s ] or [ ts ] instead of [ θ ] . In those dialects with

3024-595: Is spoken mainly in the Italian regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in both Slovenia and Croatia ( Istria , Dalmatia and the Kvarner Gulf ). Smaller communities are found in Lombardy ( Mantua ), Trentino , Emilia-Romagna ( Rimini and Forlì ), Sardinia ( Arborea , Terralba , Fertilia ), Lazio ( Pontine Marshes ), Tuscany ( Grossetan Maremma ) and formerly in Romania ( Tulcea ). It

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3168-409: Is used for much of the structure: the cornices, crowning balustrade, the panelling inside the niches, and the frames of the upper reliefs. The balustrade also contains opalescent lumachelle from the valley of San Vitale near Verona, noted for its fossilized mollusk shells. White Istrian stone , easily carved, is used for the relief sculptures. The authentic antique columns (only three of which survived

3312-624: Is used only in Veneto dialects of Venetian language. It will suffice to know that in Venetian language the letter L in word-initial and intervocalic positions usually becomes a "palatal allomorph", and is barely pronounced. Very few Venetic words seem to have survived in present Venetian, but there may be more traces left in the morphology, such as the morpheme - esto / asto / isto for the past participle, which can be found in Venetic inscriptions from about 500 BC: A peculiarity of Venetian grammar

3456-509: The Italo-Dalmatian branch of Romance. Like all members of the Romance language family , Venetian evolved from Vulgar Latin , and is thus a sister language of Italian and other Romance languages. Venetian is first attested in writing in the 13th century. The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Republic of Venice , when it attained the status of a lingua franca in

3600-588: 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. 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

3744-516: The Mediterranean Sea . Notable Venetian-language authors include the playwrights Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806). Following the old Italian theatre tradition ( commedia dell'arte ), they used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and plays by Goldoni and Gozzi are still performed today all over

3888-571: The Museo Correr (Correr Museum). 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. Again,

4032-584: The Procuratie Vecchie, the old procuracies, formerly the homes and offices of the 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

4176-593: The geminate consonants characteristic of standard Italian, Tuscan, Neapolitan and other languages of southern Italy; thus Italian fette ("slices"), palla ("ball") and penna ("pen") correspond to féte , bała , and péna in Venetian. The masculine singular noun ending, corresponding to -o / -e in Italian, is often unpronounced in Venetian after continuants, particularly in rural varieties: Italian pieno ("full") corresponds to Venetian pien , Italian altare to Venetian altar . The extent to which final vowels are deleted varies by dialect:

4320-503: The procurators of Saint Mark , the officials of the Venetian Republic who were responsible principally for the administration of the treasury of the Church of Saint Mark and for the public buildings around Saint Mark's Square. Because of its location directly in front of the Porta della Carta, the most important entry to the Doge's Palace , the loggetta was also used from 1569 onward as a sentry post to provide security for

4464-460: The sack of Rome , and by 1529 he had been appointed as Proto (consultant architect and buildings manager) to the Procurators of St. Mark. The Procurators wished to rebuild the old buildings on the south side of the Piazza, but Sansovino persuaded them that the opportunity should be taken to enlarge the Piazza and that these buildings should be demolished and the building line moved back clear of

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4608-453: The subjunctive mood is widely used in subordinate clauses . Some dialects of Venetian have certain sounds not present in Italian, such as the interdental voiceless fricative [ θ ] , often spelled with ⟨ç⟩ , ⟨z⟩ , ⟨zh⟩ , or ⟨ž⟩ , and similar to English th in thing and thought . This sound occurs, for example, in çéna ("supper", also written zhena, žena ), which

4752-589: The 13th century, much valuable material was taken from the city and shipped back for the adornment of Venice. This included marbles and pillars for the façade of St Mark's, the two square pillars in the piazzetta known (wrongly) as the Pillars of Acre and probably also the Pietra del Bando (near the south west corner of St Mark's) and the four porphyry figures known as the Tetrarchs, which were eventually installed near

4896-548: The 14th century to some extent. Other noteworthy variants are: Like most Romance languages, Venetian has mostly abandoned the Latin case system , in favor of prepositions and a more rigid subject–verb–object sentence structure. It has thus become more analytic , if not quite as much as English. Venetian also has the Romance articles , both definite (derived from the Latin demonstrative ille ) and indefinite (derived from

5040-691: The 2010 2nd Regional ad hoc Commission of the Regione del Veneto. The Academia de ła Bona Creansa – Academy of the Venetian Language, an NGO accredited according to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Venetian language and culture had already worked, tested, applied and certified a full writing system (presented in a scientific publication in linguistics in 2016), known with the DECA acronym ( Drio El Costumar de l'Academia , i.e. literally According to

5184-496: The 20th century also saw many Venetian-speakers settle in other regions of Italy, especially in the Pontine Marshes of southern Lazio where they populated new towns such as Latina , Aprilia and Pomezia , forming there the so-called " Venetian-Pontine " community ( comunità venetopontine ). Some firms have chosen to use Venetian language in advertising, as a beer did some years ago ( Xe foresto solo el nome , 'only

5328-499: The Doge Francesco Foscari kneeling before the lion of St Mark. The statues of the cardinal virtues on either side were by another hand. Originally the whole gateway was painted and gilded. This is just visible in the right background of Gentile Bellini's painting of 1496, which shows the piazza in its state at this time, still narrow and with the old 13th-century buildings on either side. In 1493 an astronomical clock

5472-469: The Doge's Palace and the two great columns in the Piazzetta. The first patron saint of Venice was St Theodore , a Greek warrior saint, and the first chapel of the Doge was dedicated to him. It was probably built about 819 and stood near the site of the present church of St Mark. In 828–829 relics of St Mark were stolen from Alexandria and brought to Venice, and in time the Venetians and the Doge adopted

5616-885: The Gallo-Italic classification. Although the language region is surrounded by Gallo-Italic languages , Venetian does not share some traits with these immediate neighbors. Some scholars stress Venetian's characteristic lack of Gallo-Italic traits ( agallicità ) or traits found further afield in Gallo-Romance languages (e.g. French, Franco-Provençal ) or the Rhaeto-Romance languages (e.g. Friulian , Romansh ). For example, Venetian did not undergo vowel rounding or nasalization, palatalize /kt/ and /ks/ , or develop rising diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ , and it preserved final syllables, whereas, as in Italian , Venetian diphthongization occurs in historically open syllables. On

5760-424: The Great Council in 1293, and the wording makes it clear that it was already on the pillar at that date. A statue of St Theodore (but not the present statue) was in place by 1329. It was also at this time, in the later 13th century, that St Mark's was being given its new west façade embellished with marble and mosaics and trophies from Constantinople, including the four horses. The original 9th-century Doge's palace

5904-542: The League of Cambrai ) the whole of the south side of the Piazza was rebuilt, starting in 1517. The new buildings, known today as the Procuratie Vecchie, were three storeys high instead of two. Like the previous Procuratie they had an arcade on the ground level with two windows above each arch, but without the high Byzantine arches and with classical details. In 1527 Jacopo Sansovino came to Venice, fleeing from

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6048-419: The League of Cognac . It amounted to the transformation of Saint Mark's Square from an antiquated medieval town centre with food vendors, money changers, and even latrines into an imposing public forum in emulation of ancient Rome. Specifically, the loggetta was modelled along the lines of ancient triumphal arches and was intended as a monumental backdrop to provide a sense of grandeur to public ceremonies. Many of

6192-556: The Peloponnese, is employed for the accents around the niches. Statues The combination of polychromatic marbles with bronze is also reminiscent of Raphael's Chigi Chapel. But in the loggetta, the bronze is more prominent as it is the material employed for the four large statues. These were designed by Sansovino on the basis of an allegorical programme conceived by the Procurator Antonio Cappello with

6336-540: The Piazza. After the abdication of Napoleon the Austrians re-occupied Venice (under the Treaty of Fontainebleau ) in April 1814. The Austrian chancellor, Prince Metternich , was instrumental in arranging the return to Venice of the four horses of St Mark and the lion from the Piazzetta. The horses were re-installed in front of the Basilica on 13 December 1815, but the bronze lion had been badly broken and had to be repaired. It

6480-459: The Porta della Carta in the Piazzetta the head of Doge Francesco Foscari was removed as well as that of the lion before which he was kneeling. (They were replaced by copies later in the century). The French ordered the four horses of San Marco to be taken down and sent to Paris together with the bronze lion on the column in the Piazzetta. They were removed in December 1797. In January 1798 under

6624-400: The Procuratie Nuove, but the upper storey, containing the ceremonial entrance and the ballroom, has no windows or arches and is decorated with statues and sculpture in low relief. In the centre there was originally to have been a statue of Napoleon as Jupiter with the imperial arms above, but this was abandoned after the fall of Napoleon in 1814 and there is now no focal point on the west side of

6768-534: The Procuratie Vecchie to the north and part of the Procuratie Nuove to the south. The original architect was Gianni Antolini from Milan, but the new building caused much controversy and in 1810 he was replaced by Giovanni Soli from Modena. The present building, known as the Ala Napoleonica (the Napoleonic Wing) was built between 1810 and 1813. The façade of the two lower storeys is in the manner of

6912-407: The Renaissance, such as Gentile Bellini 's Procession in Piazza San Marco of 1496. In 1723 the bricks were replaced with a more complex geometrical pavement design laid out by Venetian architect Andrea Tirali . Little is known about Tirali's reasoning for the particulars of the design. Some have speculated that the pattern was used to regulate market stalls, or to recall their former presence in

7056-624: The Tetrarchs and said to represent the four joint rulers of the Roman Empire appointed by Diocletian and were formerly thought to be Egyptian. It is now thought probable (or, at least very possible) that they represent the sons of the Emperor Constantine , praised for their loving co-operation on his death in 337, especially as the work originally stood in the Philadelphion (Place of Brotherly Love) in Constantinople, where

7200-529: The Treaty of Campoformio the Austrians moved into Venice in place of the French. This first Austrian ascendancy lasted from 1798 to 19 January 1806, when the French moved back after Napoleon's victories at Austerlitz and Jena and his establishment of the kingdom of Italy in 1804. Napoleon appointed his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais as his viceroy and in 1807 it was ordered that the Procuratie Nuove were to become

7344-785: The Tuscan-derived Italian language that had been proposed and used as a vehicle for a common Italian culture, strongly supported by eminent Venetian humanists and poets, from Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), a crucial figure in the development of the Italian language itself, to Ugo Foscolo (1778–1827). Venetian spread to other continents as a result of mass migration from the Veneto region between 1870 and 1905, and between 1945 and 1960. Venetian migrants created large Venetian-speaking communities in Argentina , Brazil (see Talian ), and Mexico (see Chipilo Venetian dialect ), where

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7488-737: The Use of the Academia ). The DECA writing system has been officialized by the Veneto Region under the name Grafia Veneta Internazionale Moderna , by unanimous vote of the Commissione Grafia e Toponomastica (i.e. Script and Topononymy Committee of the Venetian language on December 14, 2017, and available at portal of the Venetian Regional Council dedicated to the Venetian language . The same writing system

7632-450: The Venetians soon after the fourth crusade in 1204. The ruins of this church were discovered in 1960 and it was excavated in the 1990s, when capitals were found, which matched the pillars. Beyond these pillars, opposite the corner of the Basilica, is a great circular stone of red porphyry known as the Pietra del Bando (Proclamation Stone) from which official proclamations used to be read. It has been suggested that this may have formed part of

7776-422: The apostle as their new patron. He was the missionary-apostle who was said to have converted their district; the relics of an apostle would increase the importance of the city and their acquisition was a further step in the gradual process of freeing Venice from the domination of Byzantium . The relics were temporarily placed in the palace (or castle) of the Doge, Justinian Partecipacius, who provided in his will for

7920-495: The archangel Gabriel above it. The sculptor is not known, although various suggestions have been made including Bartolomeo Buon from Venice and Jacopo della Quercia from Siena and several art historians think that the sculpture of the Judgment of Solomon (which must have been made in the period 1424/38) shows influence from Tuscany. Eduardo Arslan, after reviewing all the theories in 1971, concluded that this sculpture "remains for us

8064-426: The archangel Gabriel above. The sculptors are not known. Set back from this corner is the Porta della Carta, the ceremonial entrance to the palace, built in fine Gothic style in 1438–43, probably by Giovanni and Bartolomeo Bon. Again, there is at the top a figure of Venice as Justice, the theme of fair judgment and justice being much emphasised on this side of the palace. Below this, the head of Doge Francisco Foscari and

8208-519: The assembled nobles during the meetings of the Great Council : three procurators were to be present, assisted by an armed squadron of workers from the Arsenal , the government shipyard, in order to counter any popular assault and respond to any fire. Beginning in 1734, it was additionally the site for the extraction of winning tickets in the public lottery. The loggetta was largely destroyed in

8352-447: The bell tower as a result of storm and earthquake but was repaired after each incident. However, when lightning struck the bell tower on 11 August 1537 and the loggia underneath was once again damaged, it was decided to completely rebuild the structure. The commission was given to the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino, the proto (consultant architect and buildings manager) of the procurators of Saint Mark de supra . The building of

8496-481: The campanile, stopping at a line connecting the three large flagpoles and leaving the space immediately in front of the Basilica undecorated. A smaller version of the same pattern in the Piazzetta paralleled Sansovino's Library , leaving a narrow trapezoid adjacent to the Doge's palace with the wide end closed off by the southwest corner of the Basilica. This smaller pattern had the internal squares inclined to form non- orthogonal quadrilaterals. The overall alignment of

8640-413: The campanile. He also convinced them that the old hostelries and shops on the west side of the Piazzetta opposite the Doge's Palace should be replaced by a new building worthy of the site. It was decided that the library of books and manuscripts , which had been bequeathed to the city by Cardinal Bessarion but had still not found a permanent home, should be housed there and Sansovino originally intended that

8784-758: The central–southern varieties delete vowels only after / n / , whereas the northern variety deletes vowels also after dental stops and velars; the eastern and western varieties are in between these two extremes. The velar nasal [ ŋ ] (the final sound in English "song") occurs frequently in Venetian. A word-final / n / is always velarized, which is especially obvious in the pronunciation of many local Venetian surnames that end in ⟨n⟩ , such as Mari n [maˈɾiŋ] and Mani n [maˈniŋ] , as well as in common Venetian words such as ma n ( [ˈmaŋ] "hand"), piro n ( [piˈɾoŋ] "fork"). Moreover, Venetian always uses [ ŋ ] in consonant clusters that start with

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8928-481: The centre, like a bowl, where a drain conducted surface water into a below-grade drainage system. The pattern connected the central portal of the Basilica with the centre of the western opening into the piazza. This line more closely parallels the façade of the Procuratie Vecchie, leaving a nearly triangular space adjacent to the Procuratie Nuove with its wider end closed off by the Campanile. The pattern continued past

9072-430: The city and region, which is why the modern language has a similar name, while their language may have also left a few traces in modern Venetian as a substrate . The main regional varieties and subvarieties of Venetian language: All these variants are mutually intelligible, with a minimum 92% in common among the most diverging ones (Central and Western). Modern speakers reportedly can still understand Venetian texts from

9216-446: The clitic el marks the indicative verb and its masculine singular subject, otherwise there is an imperative preceded by a vocative. Although some grammars regard these clitics as "redundant", they actually provide specific additional information as they mark number and gender, thus providing number-/gender- agreement between the subject(s) and the verb, which does not necessarily show this information on its endings. Venetian also has

9360-508: The collapse of the bell tower in 1902) are made out of breccias from Asia and Africa and are positioned so that the colour and texture of the angular fragments of pre-existing rocks in the stone become progressively more pronounced moving towards the central columns. The lesenes behind the columns, the convex pulvinated frieze of the main entablature , and the capitals are in white Carrara marble veined with grey. Precious dark green lapis lacedaemonius ( verde antico ), found exclusively in

9504-591: The collapse of the bell tower in 1902, but it was rebuilt using what original material could be salvaged, amounting to about half of the present building. At the same time the sides, which had originally been left in plain brick as other lean-to structures backed onto them, were rebuilt in the style of the main facade. The building serves as the entrance to the tower elevator. Covered exterior galleries, referred to as loggias and intended as public gathering places, were normally built in Venice against church façades, such as

9648-537: The corresponding words of Italian. Venetian includes however many words derived from other sources (such as ancient Venetic, Greek, Gothic, and German), and has preserved some Latin words not used to the same extent in Italian, resulting in many words that are not cognate with their equivalent words in Italian, such as: Since December 2017 the Venetian language adopted a modern writing system, named GVIM (acronym for Grafia del Veneto Internazionale Moderno , i.e. Writing system for Modern International Venetian ) thanks to

9792-570: The death of Sansovino funds were at last made available to start the rebuilding of the south side of the Piazza in its new position well clear of the campanile. His idea of a two-storey building continuing the façade of the Libreria had to be abandoned, as the Procurators required three storeys. However Vincenzo Scamozzi based the design on the façade of the Libreria and completed ten bays between 1582 and 1586, The Procuratie Nuove (New Procuracies), as they are called, were not completed until 1640, when

9936-440: The dialect of the speaker. In Venice and its mainland as well as in most of central Veneto (excluding the peripheral provinces of Verona, Belluno and some islands of the lagoon) the realization is a non-syllabic [e̯] (usually described as nearly like an "e" and so often spelled as ⟨e⟩ ), when ⟨ł⟩ is adjacent (only) to back vowels ( ⟨a o u⟩ ), vs. a null realization when ⟨ł⟩

10080-631: The drains in the piazza runs directly into the Grand Canal. This normally works well but, when the sea is high, it has the reverse effect, with water from the lagoon surging up into the square. A historically important flood was the 1966 Venice flood , when an abnormal occurrence of high tides, rain-swollen rivers and a severe sirocco wind caused the canals to rise to a height of 194 cm or 6 ft 4 in. Venetian language Although referred to as an "Italian dialect" (Venetian: diałeto ; Italian : dialetto ) even by some of its speakers,

10224-401: The edge of the lagoon, framing the entry to the city from the sea. Gambling was permitted in the space between the columns and this right was said to have been granted as a reward to the man who first raised the columns. Public executions also took place between the columns. On the far side of the Piazzetta is the side wall of the Doge's Palace with Gothic arcades at ground level and a loggia on

10368-713: The end of the building with cafés and shops and also the entrances to the Archaeological Museum, the Biblioteca Marciana and the National Library, which occupy the floors above. At the end of this building is the Molo (the quay fronting the lagoon) and the adjoining building to the right is the Zecca (mint) also by Sansovino (completed 1547) and now part of the Biblioteca Marciana. Turning to

10512-407: The entrance to the Doge's Palace from the piazzetta. The two great granite columns in the Piazzetta are usually said to have been erected about 1170, but it is now thought more probable that this was done in the time of Doge Ranieri Zeno (1253–68) about 1268; the bases and capitals are 13th-century. Their origin is unknown, but Chios is suggested as possible. The lion is first mentioned in a decree of

10656-416: The exterior of the apse today). It had five domes, but their exterior profile was low, unlike the present high, onion-shaped structures. Great changes to the area came when Sebastiano Ziani was Doge (1172–78). Venice was growing in importance and the Doge was a very wealthy man. He initiated the changes which created the piazza as we know it. The Rio Baratario was filled in and the church of San Geminiano on

10800-476: The far side was demolished and rebuilt much farther back at the western end of what became the Piazza. An orchard which occupied part of the area was acquired from the convent of San Zaccharia and the Doge bought up a number of buildings which obstructed the site. By his will he left these buildings to the state and in due course they were demolished to clear the area. The rebuilding of the 9th-century Doge's palace also commenced in his time as Doge. The precise date of

10944-609: The façade of this building (the Libreria) should eventually be continued along the south side of the Piazza and round the south-west corner as far as the church of San Geminiano in the middle of the west side. These changes also made it necessary to rebuild the Loggetta and at the same time the government of Venice had commissioned Sansovino to rebuild the mint (the Zecca ) on the west side of the Libreria. All these works were proceeding together for many years after 1537. The new Loggetta

11088-409: The first-floor loggia, contrasting with the other pillars which are of white Istrian stone. The red pillars are made of red Verona marble . They may have framed the Doge's chair on ceremonial occasions, but it seems that important malefactors found guilty of crimes against the state would sometimes be executed there. On the rear corner of the Doge's Palace is a sculpture of the Judgment of Solomon with

11232-485: The floor above. Up to the seventh pillar from the front this is the building as rebuilt in 1340, while the extension towards the Basilica was added in 1424. The capitals of the columns of the extended part are mostly copies of those in the front of the Palace. The seventh pillar is marked by a tondo (circular sculpture) of Venice as Justice above the first floor loggia. To the left of this, there are two red pillars in front of

11376-419: The front corner and the fact that that pillar is larger than the others, having held up the corner of the building for 80 years. The capitals on this façade are, for the most part, copies of the existing capitals on the front façade. The last pillar, at the north-western corner of the building, is a very large column and, continuing the theme of Justice, bears a large relief carving of the Judgment of Solomon, with

11520-485: The front corner, now marked by a circular relief of Venice as Justice on the outside of the first-floor arcade. Further back, part of the old palace, known as the Palace of Justice, remained, much as it had stood for about 200 years. Because of the great expense involved, nothing more was done for many years, but in 1422 the Doge Tomaso Mocenigo insisted that for the honour of the city the remaining part of

11664-424: The god of music, he alludes to the perfect constitutional harmony between the various councils and magistrates which ensures the stability and longevity of the state. On the loggetta, he is portrayed with a quiver and arrows as symbols of the piercing solar rays. The lyre is now missing from his left hand. Mercury , the god of eloquence, underscores that Venice's wise and prudent decisions are eloquently expressed by

11808-642: 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

11952-437: The intention of glorifying the Republic and exalting its intrinsic virtues in a public space. The architect's son, Francesco Sansovino , elaborates the significance of the statues in both L'Arte oratoria secondo i modi della lingua volgare (1546) and Venetia, città nobilissima et singolare (1581), specifying in the latter publication that he obtained the explanation directly from his father. Francesco Sansovino identifies

12096-484: The island. Cyprus, annexed to Venice in 1489 and ceded to the Ottoman Turks in 1573, is shown as Venus who was born from the waters near the island. 1653–1663 In conjunction with reparations made necessary after lightning struck the bell tower, Baldassare Longhena , the consultant architect and buildings manager for the procurators of Saint Mark de supra from 1640 to 1682, replaced the five steps in front of

12240-473: The key architectural elements, including the paired columns and niches with statues, had in fact already been employed by Sansovino for the temporary wooden arches that he designed and erected in Florence in 1514 for the ceremonial entry of Pope Leo X into the city the previous year. Although the small brick structure was quickly erected between 1538 and 1540, in part with building materials recuperated from

12384-428: The label is primarily geographic. Venetian is a separate language from Italian, with many local varieties. Its precise place within the Romance language family remains somewhat controversial. Both Ethnologue and Glottolog group it into the Gallo-Italic branch (and thus, closer to French and Emilian–Romagnol than to Italian ). Devoto , Avolio and Ursini reject such classification, and Tagliavini places it in

12528-483: The language is still spoken today. In the 19th century large-scale immigration towards Trieste and Muggia extended the presence of the Venetian language eastward. Previously the dialect of Trieste had been a Rhaeto Romance dialect known as Tergestino . This dialect became extinct as a result of Venetian migration, which gave rise to the Triestino dialect of Venetian spoken there today. Internal migrations during

12672-683: The language is the use of the phrase eser drìo (literally, "to be behind") to indicate continuing action: Another progressive form in some Venetian dialects uses the construction èsar łà che (lit. "to be there that"): The use of progressive tenses is more pervasive than in Italian; e.g. That construction does not occur in Italian: *Non sarebbe mica stato parlandoti is not syntactically valid. Subordinate clauses have double introduction ("whom that", "when that", "which that", "how that"), as in Old English : As in other Romance languages,

12816-526: The late 19th century. The people of Chipilo preserve their dialect and call it chipileño , and it has been preserved as a variant since the 19th century. The variant of Venetian spoken by the Cipiłàn ( Chipileños ) is northern Trevisàn-Feltrìn-Belumàt. In 2009, the Brazilian city of Serafina Corrêa , in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, gave Talian a joint official status alongside Portuguese . Until

12960-707: The lavish stone facing. The rich polychromatic effect, obtained by employing a number of rare stones and costly marbles, is reminiscent of the interior of the Pantheon , of Raphael ’s Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo (begun c. 1512), and of Baldassare Peruzzi 's tomb of Pope Adrian VI in Santa Maria dell'Anima (1523–1530), all constructions with which Sansovino was likely familiar from his second period in Rome (1516–1527). Locally available red Verona marble

13104-563: The lean-to structures around the perimeter of the bell tower were subsequently extended along the sides of the loggetta in order to provide an additional source of rental income to the procurators. Work resumed, and by January 1541 the basic structure was complete when the leaden roof was applied. The principal model for the loggetta was likely the Arch of Constantine in Rome with three prominent arches alternating with projecting columns that are displayed as trophies on high pedestals. The design of

13248-473: The left at the end of the Biblioteca one crosses the open end of the Piazzetta marked by two large granite columns carrying symbols of the two patron saints of Venice. The first is Saint Theodore , who was the patron of the city before St Mark, holding a spear and with a crocodile to represent the dragon which he was said to have slain. This is made up of parts of antique statues and is a copy (the original

13392-413: The leftmost statue as Pallas , an epithet for Athena . Characterized by her medusa shield, Athena is an allegory for wisdom and righteousness, as well as the goddess of war. This may have signified the righteousness of the Venetian patriciate, as well as Venetian naval prowess. Apollo , as the god of the one sun ( Sole ), allegorizes the uniqueness of the Republic and of its government. In addition, as

13536-607: The length of the piazza) and proceeding to the right. 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. Four hundred years later, Napoleon, after he had conquered Venice, had them taken down and shipped to Paris. The Piazzetta dei Leoncini

13680-403: The lion before which he is kneeling were replaced in 1885, the originals having been destroyed on French orders in 1797. The statues on either side of the gateway represent the cardinal virtues of Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Charity. Next to this, on an outside corner of the basilica of St Mark, are four antique figures carved in porphyry, a very hard red granite. They are usually known as

13824-408: The loggetta and the external benches with a wide terrace and balustrade. The two lateral windows were reduced to half lunettes with iron grillwork in the upper portion, and doors were added. 1733–1750 Antonio Gai realized the elaborate bronze gate (1733–1734) with the allegorical figures of Vigilance (on the left with the lighted lamp and the crane holding a pebble with its foot) and Liberty (on

13968-448: The loggetta was a part of the renovatio urbis , the ambitious programme of architectural renewal, begun under Doge Andrea Gritti , that was aimed at reaffirming Venice's international prestige after the earlier defeat at Agnadello during the War of the League of Cambrai and the subsequent Peace of Bologna which sanctioned Habsburg hegemony on the Italian peninsula at the end of the War of

14112-693: The middle of the 20th century, Venetian was also spoken on the Greek Island of Corfu , which had long been under the rule of the Republic of Venice . Moreover, Venetian had been adopted by a large proportion of the population of Cephalonia , one of the Ionian Islands , because the island was part of the Stato da Màr for almost three centuries. Venetian is a Romance language and thus descends from Vulgar Latin . Its classification has always been controversial: According to Tagliavini, for example, it

14256-521: The missing foot of one of the figures has been found. Beyond this, in front of the South wall of the Basilica are two rectangular pillars always known as the Pillars of Acre. They were thought to be booty taken by the Venetians from Acre after their great victory over the Genoese there in 1258, but this traditional story has also had to be revised. The pillars actually came from the church of St Polyeuktos in Constantinople (524–27), and were probably taken by

14400-401: The name is foreign'). In other cases advertisements in Veneto are given a "Venetian flavour" by adding a Venetian word to standard Italian: for instance an airline used the verb xe ( Xe sempre più grande , "it is always bigger") into an Italian sentence (the correct Venetian being el xe senpre pì grando ) to advertise new flights from Marco Polo Airport . In 2007, Venetian

14544-575: The niches with statues placed between paired columns may also derive from Donato Bramante 's design for the marble screen within the Church of the Sacra Casa in Loreto. But the specific choice of composite capitals, combined with a convex pulvinated frieze, was probably inspired from the tomb of Pope Adrian VI in Santa Maria dell'Anima . Given its small size, the loggetta cost the relatively considerable sum of 4,258 ducats and 14 grossi due to

14688-578: The nobles. The god is shown with the severed head of Argus at his feet. The caduceus is missing from his right hand. Pax represents the peace, beloved by the Republic, which ensures its greatness. The statue of the goddess shows her extinguishing her torch on the armour that lays cast-off at her feet. Reliefs The three reliefs in the attic are the work of Sansovino's collaborators Danese Cattaneo and Tiziano Aspetti . They allegorize Venice and its principal subject territories of Crete and Cyprus. The central relief shows Venice as Justice with

14832-452: The noun in gender and number, but it is important to mention that the suffix might be deleted because the article is the part that suggests the number. However, Italian is influencing Venetian language: In recent studies on Venetian variants in Veneto, there has been a tendency to write the so-called "evanescent L" as ⟨ł⟩ . While it may help novice speakers, Venetian was never written with this letter. In this article, this symbol

14976-535: The numeral unus ). Venetian also retained the Latin concepts of gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). Unlike the Gallo-Iberian languages, which form plurals by adding -s , Venetian forms plurals in a manner similar to standard Italian. Nouns and adjectives can be modified by suffixes that indicate several qualities such as size, endearment, deprecation, etc. Adjectives (usually postfixed) and articles are inflected to agree with

15120-402: The old Church of San Francesco della Vigna , concerns about the magnitude of the overall architectural programme (which included the library ) and the associated expenses for the coffers of the procurators of Saint Mark de supra led to a brief suspension of work and the decision to simplify the design by leaving the brick of the side walls exposed. The sides were however partially obscured when

15264-415: The old palace should be demolished and the new part extended. It was resolved that the existing façade should be continued in the same style, and work started in 1424 under the new Doge Francesco Foscari . The extended façade had reached the corner by 1438 and the point where the 15th-century part joins the 14th-century part can only be recognised by the circular relief of Justice above the seventh pillar from

15408-544: The opposite (south) side of the Piazza, of which the most important was the Ospizio Orseolo, an inn or hostel for pilgrims going to the Holy Land. It can be seen that the piazza was then considerably narrower than it is today, because these buildings abutted directly against the west wall of the campanile. In 1204, Constantinople was captured in the course of the 4th Crusade and, both at that time and later during

15552-436: The original Procuratie building, in de Barbari 's woodcut of Venice in 1500. The Procuratie then were only two storeys high and the tower stood higher above them than it does today. Buildings on either side to support the tower were added by 1506 and in 1512, when there was a fire in the old Procuratie, it became obvious that the whole range would have to be rebuilt. Although Venice was then at war with much of Europe ( War of

15696-543: The other hand, Venetian does share many other traits with its surrounding Gallo-Italic languages, like interrogative clitics , mandatory unstressed subject pronouns (with some exceptions), the "to be behind to" verbal construction to express the continuous aspect ("El ze drio manjar" = He is eating, lit. he is behind to eat) and the absence of the absolute past tense as well as of geminated consonants . In addition, Venetian has some unique traits which are shared by neither Gallo-Italic, nor Italo-Dalmatian languages, such as

15840-406: The pavement pattern serves to visually lengthen the long axis and reinforce the position of the Basilica at its head. This arrangement mirrors the interior relationship of nave to altar within the cathedral. As part of the design, the level of the piazza was raised by approximately one meter to mitigate flooding and allow more room for the internal drains to carry water to the Grand Canal. In 1890,

15984-533: The pavement was renewed "due to wear and tear". The new work closely follows Tirali's design, but eliminated the oval shapes and cut off the west edge of the pattern to accommodate the Napoleonic wing at that end of the Piazza. The Piazza San Marco is not far above sea level and during the acqua alta , the "high water" from storm surges from the Adriatic or heavy rain, it is quick to flood. Water pouring into

16128-400: The perimeter of the bell tower. Important sources of rental income for the procurators of Saint Mark de supra , they were rebuilt in 1550 alongside Sansovino's structure and existed until 1873 when they were finally demolished. This completely exposed the lateral brick walls which had only partial three-light windows in the upper parts in order to accommodate for the lean-to structure below. It

16272-410: The piazzetta and is described there. The arcade continues round the corner into the Piazzetta. 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

16416-475: The pronunciation [ s ] , the sound has fallen together with ordinary ⟨s⟩ , and so it is not uncommon to simply write ⟨s⟩ (or ⟨ss⟩ between vowels) instead of ⟨ç⟩ or ⟨zh⟩ (such as sena ). Similarly some dialects of Venetian also have a voiced interdental fricative [ ð ] , often written ⟨z⟩ (as in el pianze 'he cries'); but in most dialects this sound

16560-461: The public buildings around the square. In the fifteenth century, the procurators erected a second loggia, attached to the bell tower. Visible in La Piazzetta di San Marco (c. 1487), attributed to Lazzaro Bastiani, it was a lean-to wooden structure, partially enclosed, that consisted in a triple arcade supported on four stone columns. Over time, it was repeatedly damaged by falling masonry from

16704-419: The reliefs in the attic are original with the exception of the putto on the extreme right. The spandrel figures are also original as are most of the reliefs above and below the niches. At the time of the reconstruction, the sides that had originally been left in exposed brick were redesigned. The architectural elements of the façade were continued along the sides, and the same types of stone and marble used for

16848-503: The remaining bays on the south side were completed and continued round the corner to the church of San Geminiano by Baldassarre Longhena . Venice surrendered to Napoleon on 12 May 1797. By 4 June a "Tree of Liberty" had been placed in the Piazza. Soon afterwards stonemasons were sent out on the orders of the Municipality to destroy images of the winged lion, which was seen as a symbol of Venetian independence and aristocratic rule. On

16992-502: The right with the pileus on a staff). The gate is surmounted by Armed Peace (to the left with a helmet and an olive branch) and Public Happiness (to the right with the caduceus and a cornucopia). Giorgio Massari widened the attic between 1749 and 1750. The marble reliefs of the two putti on the external wings of the elevation were carved by Antonio Gai. 1876–1885 The original medieval loggetta had been covered on both sides with lean-to wooden stalls for shops which continued along

17136-475: The roof and wooden dome, were probably lost, but the church was not completely destroyed and it seems to have been rebuilt much as before. In 1063 a complete rebuilding commenced. The new church was finished in the time of Doge Vitale Falier (1084–96), and in its main structure this is the present church, though the west front facing the Piazza was then in the Romanesque style with undecorated brickwork (like

17280-409: The royal palace for his occupation. Napoleon himself paid a ceremonial visit to Venice later in 1807, landing at the Piazzetta on his way to the new palace. It was decided that the new palace should extend across the whole of the west end of the Piazza and this made it necessary to demolish the church of San Geminiano, rebuilt by Sansovino, and also the buildings on either side, Sansovino's extension of

17424-492: The same; there are no long vowels, and there is no consonant lengthening. Compare the Italian sentence va laggiù con lui [val.ladˌd͡ʒuk.konˈluː.i] "go there with him" (all long/heavy syllables but final) with Venetian va là zo co lu [va.laˌzo.koˈlu] (all short/light syllables). As a direct descent of regional spoken Latin, Venetian lexicon derives its vocabulary substantially from Latin and (in more recent times) from Tuscan, so that most of its words are cognate with

17568-407: The social, religious and political centre of Venice and are referred to together. This article relates to both of them. A remark usually attributed (though without proof) to Napoleon calls the Piazza San Marco "the drawing room of Europe". The square 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

17712-430: The south side of the Piazza beyond the Libreria. Sansovino also completed the rebuilding of the old church of San Geminiano at the west end of the Piazza, facing St Mark's. Much of the work had been done before he took it over in 1557, but he was responsible for the façade in white Istrian stone. He also continued the range of Procuratie Vecchie on the north side of the Piazza round the corner as far as this church. After

17856-401: The square. Others believe the pattern was drawn from oriental rugs , a popular luxury item in this trading centre. A field of dark-colored igneous trachyte with geometrical designs executed in white Istrian stone , similar to travertine composed the design. Squares of diagonally laid blocks alternated with rectangular and oval designs along broad parallel bands. The squares were pitched to

18000-815: The surviving examples of San Giacomo di Rialto and San Nicolò dei Mendicoli . A similar structure was also attached to the building of the Camerlenghi at Rialto as a meeting place for nobles to discuss business affairs in the commercial centre of the city. Furnished with maps and paintings, this structure, visible in Vittore Carpaccio's Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte di Rialto (c. 1496) and in Jacopo de' Barbari's panoramic view of Venice (1500),

18144-415: The sword and scales. She sits upon a throne supported by lions in allusion to her Solomonic wisdom. On either side the figure is flanked by river gods with water flowing from urns in reference to the subject territories on the Italian mainland. The territory of Crete , under Venetian rule from 1205 to 1669, is presented as Jupiter who was raised on Mount Aigaion on Crete and fathered Minos , the first king of

18288-469: The time of the republic of Venice and now shares them with the Italian flag. The Piazzetta di San Marco is, strictly speaking, not part of the Piazza but an adjoining open space connecting the south side of the Piazza to the waterway of the lagoon. The Piazzetta lies between the Doge's Palace on the east and Jacopo Sansovino 's Biblioteca (Library) which holds the Biblioteca Marciana on

18432-459: The town of Chipilo . The town was settled by immigrants from the Veneto region, and some of their descendants have preserved the language to this day. People from Chipilo have gone on to make satellite colonies in Mexico, especially in the states of Guanajuato , Querétaro , and State of Mexico . Venetian has also survived in the state of Veracruz , where other Italian migrants have settled since

18576-466: The use of the impersonal passive forms and the use of the auxiliary verb "to have" for the reflexive voice (both traits shared with German ). Modern Venetian is not a close relative of the extinct Venetic language spoken in Veneto before Roman expansion, although both are Indo-European , and Venetic may have been an Italic language, like Latin , the ancestor of Venetian and most other languages of Italy . The ancient Veneti gave their name to

18720-399: The various new buildings is not known and much must have been done in the time of his son, Pietro Ziani , who was Doge from 1205 to 1229. The area of the piazza was now defined by the erection of buildings on the north and south sides. On the north side were the procuratie, residences and offices for the procurators of St Mark. The original procuratie were a range of two-storey buildings with

18864-442: The west. At the corner near the campanile, this (west) side is occupied entirely by the Biblioteca (Library) designed by Jacopo Sansovino to hold the Biblioteca Marciana (library of St Mark). Building started in 1537 and it was extended, after the death of Sansovino, by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1588–91. The building was said by Palladio to be "the most magnificent and ornate structure built since ancient times". The arcade continues to

19008-736: The world. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad by Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) and Francesco Boaretti, the translation of the Divine Comedy (1875) by Giuseppe Cappelli and the poems of Biagio Marin (1891–1985). Notable too is a manuscript titled Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzene in perpuosito de la stella Nuova attributed to Girolamo Spinelli , perhaps with some supervision by Galileo Galilei for scientific details. Several Venetian–Italian dictionaries are available in print and online, including those by Boerio , Contarini, Nazari and Piccio . As

19152-496: Was commissioned by Venice and it was decided to install it in a new clocktower in the Piazza with a high archway beneath it leading into the street known as the Merceria, which leads to the Rialto. The building, which was probably designed by Codussi, was started in 1496, a section of the original Procuratie being demolished for the purpose. The building was completed with the clock installed by February 1499. It can be seen, flanked by

19296-459: Was complete by 1545 and the Zecca by 1547 (though a third storey was added by 1566), but work on the Libreria was held up by the difficulty of finding new premises for the businesses which were displaced as well as by shortage of funds and only sixteen bays (out of twenty-one) had been finished before the death of Sansovino in 1570. By that date it had not yet been possible to start on the rebuilding of

19440-488: Was consequently decided to extend the window frames downward using as a model the window, derived from Bramante's Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan and the nymphaeum at Genazzano near Rome, that Sansovino himself had employed for the high altar of San Martino in Venice. In 1902, the loggetta was largely destroyed when the bell tower collapsed. The surviving elements were catalogued and integrated with substitute pieces. The whole

19584-496: Was given recognition by the Regional Council of Veneto with regional law no. 8 of 13 April 2007 "Protection, enhancement and promotion of the linguistic and cultural heritage of Veneto". Though the law does not explicitly grant Venetian any official status, it provides for Venetian as object of protection and enhancement, as an essential component of the cultural, social, historical and civil identity of Veneto. Venetian

19728-525: Was not rebuilt after the fire that devastated the Rialto market in 1514. From the end of the thirteenth century until the second half of the seventeenth century, a loggia also existed in Saint Mark's Square as a gathering place for nobles whenever they came to the square on government business. Although it was attached to the Church of San Basso , it was under the jurisdiction of the procurators of Saint Mark de supra who were responsible specifically for

19872-419: Was placed back on its pillar in April 1816. The Piazza was paved in the late 12th century with bricks laid in a herringbone pattern . Bands of light-colored stone ran parallel to the long axis of the main piazza. These lines were probably used in setting up market stalls and in organizing frequent ceremonial processions. This original pavement design can be seen in paintings of the late Middle Ages and through

20016-488: Was probably an empty space covered with grass in front of the new church, but it cannot have extended more than about 60 metres to the west, where there was a stream (the Rio Baratario) bisecting the area now occupied by the Piazza. On the other side of this stream was a small church dedicated to San Geminiano . The Doge's palace, in the same area as its modern successor, was at that time surrounded by water. The lagoon

20160-413: Was ruled by Austria in the 19th century, while the Venetians preferred Florian's on the other side of the piazza. 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

20304-463: Was soon found too small for the number of patricians sitting on the Great Council after the right to do so was made hereditary in 1297, and rebuilding started in 1340. Work was held up by the Black Death in 1348 but the first stage was completed by 1365. This comprised the front part of the palace facing the lagoon, but in the Piazzetta the new building only extended to the seventh pillar back from

20448-520: Was then employed for the first grammar of the Venetian language to be published by a university, in Brasil, in 2018 Loggetta del Sansovino The Loggetta is a small, richly decorated building at the base of the bell tower in Saint Mark's Square , Venice , Italy. Built by Jacopo Sansovino between 1538 and 1546, it served at various times as a gathering place for nobles and for meetings of

20592-410: Was then reassembled in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace before being moved to the base of the new bell tower. Construction was completed in 1912. The current Loggetta is built with roughly fifty percent of the original architectonic and decorative material. The three surviving columns are located on either side of the doorway and in the second-to-the-last position on the right. Although badly damaged,

20736-516: Was to the south, the Rio di Palazzo (the canal beneath the Bridge of Sighs ) to the east, and another stream to the north between the palace and the church. There was an inlet from the lagoon occupying much of the space now covered by the Piazzetta and this seems to have been used as a dock for the city. In 976 there was a rebellion against the Doge and the church was set on fire. The wooden parts, including

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