Basilica San Marco: Treasury
Admission fee: €3.
The Tesoro di San Marco (Treasury of Saint Mark's Basilica) occupies a small, thick-walled room in the south transept of the basilica. Many scholars think the room may once have been a ninth century tower belonging to the neighbouring Palazzo Ducale. The treasury contains a rich collection of gold and silver work, much of it plundered from Constantinople during the sacking of the city in 1204.
The collection was once much larger, but many works of art were plundered on the orders of Napoleon, following the fall of the Republic in 1797. The collection was further impoverished between 1815 and 1819 when some objects were sold to fund a much-needed restoration of the Basilica. The Tesoro di San Marco (Treasury of Saint Mark's Basilica) occupies a small, thick-walled room in the south transept of the basilica. Many scholars think the room may once have been a ninth century tower belonging to the neighbouring Palazzo Ducale. The treasury contains a rich collection of gold and silver work, much of it plundered from Constantinople during the sacking of the city in 1204. The collection was once much larger, but many works of art were plundered on the orders of Napoleon, following the fall of the Republic in 1797. The collection was further impoverished between 1815 and 1819 when some objects were sold to fund a much-needed restoration of the Basilica. |