Museo di San Marco, golden mosaics adorn the entrance in the vestibule

Museo di San Marco

Venice


Accessed by a narrow staircase leading up from Basilica di San Marco's atrium, this museum transports visitors to the level of the church's rear mosaics and out onto the Loggia dei Cavalli, the terrace above the main facade. The four magnificent bronze horses positioned here are actually reproductions of the precious 2nd-century originals, plundered from Constantinople's hippodrome, displayed inside.

Architecture buffs will revel in the beautifully rendered drawings and scale models of the basilica. In the displays of 13th- to 16th-century mosaic fragments, the Prophet Abraham is all ears and raised eyebrows, as though scandalised by Venetian gossip. Positioned above an interior balcony, Salviati's restored 1542–52 mosaic of the Virgin's family tree shows Mary's ancestors perched on branches, alternately chatting and ignoring one another, as families do. A corridor leads into a section of the Palazzo Ducale housing the doge's banquet hall, where dignitaries wined and dined among lithe stucco figures of Music, Poetry and Peace.

Transportation

  • ferry: San Marco

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Venice attractions

1. Basilica di San Marco

0.01 MILES

With a profusion of domes and more than 8000 sq metres of luminous mosaics, Venice's cathedral is unforgettable. It was founded in the 9th century to…

2. Campanile

0.04 MILES

Basilica di San Marco's 99m-tall bell tower has been rebuilt twice since its initial construction in AD 888. Galileo Galilei tested his telescope here in…

3. Torre dell’Orologio

0.04 MILES

The two hardest-working men in Venice stand duty on a rooftop around the clock, and wear no pants. The 'Do Mori' (Two Moors) exposed to the elements atop…

4. Museo Diocesano di Venezia

0.06 MILES

Housed in a former Benedictine monastery dedicated to Sant’Apollonia, this museum has a fairly predictable collection of religious art and the occasional…

5. Piazza San Marco

0.06 MILES

This grand showpiece square beautifully encapsulates the splendour of Venice's past and its tourist-fuelled present. Flanked by the arcaded Procuratie…

6. Palazzo Ducale

0.07 MILES

Holding pride of place on the waterfront, this pretty Gothic confection may be an unlikely setting for the political and administrative seat of a great…

7. Ponte dei Sospiri

0.07 MILES

One of Venice's most photographed sights, the Bridge of Sighs connects Palazzo Ducale to the 16th-century Priggione Nove (New Prisons). Its improbable…

8. Lion of St Mark Column

0.08 MILES

One of a pair of granite columns bearing the two patron saints of Venice in Piazetta di San Marco, this eastern column bears a statue representing a…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "italy/venice/sestiere-di-san-marco/attractions/museo-di-san-marco/a/poi-sig/1360438/1320995",
      "destination": "Venice",
      "continent": "Europe",
      "country": "Italy",
      "city": "Venice",
      "position": "superzone"
    }