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St. Mark's Basilica follows a Greek-cross plan crowned by five domes, a design directly modeled on Constantinople's Church of the Holy Apostles -- a deliberate architectural statement of Venice's close ties to Byzantium at the time of the church's rebuilding in the 11th century.
The building's exterior blends styles added over centuries: its lower façade retains Byzantine-era marble columns and carved panels, many taken as spoils from Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade, while pointed arches, spires, and statues added in the 14th and 15th centuries give the upper façade a distinctly Gothic silhouette.
Above the main entrance, the Loggia dei Cavalli displays replicas of the famed bronze horses -- the originals, moved inside for preservation, are themselves spoils from Constantinople and among the few surviving quadriga sculptures from antiquity.
Inside, the basilica's golden domes and walls reflect natural light in a way specifically engineered to give the interior its glow, earning it the nickname "Chiesa d'Oro" ("Church of Gold").
While the building's structure has not changed substantially in the intervening years, its interior's adornment has altered over the years. Each succeeding artistic period saw new decorative elements added, with new columns, marbles, and carvings added to the interior and the exterior.
The interior walls are covered with Byzantine and Gothic mosaics. The floor, added in the twelfth century, is a geometrically-designed mixture of marble and mosaics inlaid with gold and bronze, with animal designs interspersed within the patterns.
This richly-decorated floor covers more than 2000 square meters, and altogether, the interior walls and floor of the basilica are covered by more than 8000 square meters of mosaics created between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries. The narthex, or entrance, of the church, displays scenes from the Old Testament. Within the basilica itself, scenes from the New Testament are the predominant theme. These mosaics depict events in the lives of Saint Mark and other saints, Christ and the Virgin Mary.
The construction of mosaics initially began in 1071 and has continued off and on for several centuries. In the thirteenth century, many marble sculptures and works of art were transported to the basilica after Constantinople had been conquered during the Fourth Crusade. These include relics, crosses, chalices, and icons today held in the Treasury of the basilica. Further statuary was added during the fourteenth century. The building's exterior was redecorated in the Gothic style in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries with the addition of spires and sculptures of saints and angels.
The basilica is also rich in sculptural art, some created expressly for the church itself, and some obtained elsewhere and placed within the church. These include altars, columns, and statues, made of bronze, marble, and oriental alabaster, representing Biblical figures and events in their lives.
Even though the basilica displays decorative elements from an eclectic range of locations and historical periods, the result is remarkably cohesive and well-structured—the Basilica di San Marco is simply a beautiful building both inside and out.
St. Mark's Museum, situated above the north-west atrium of the basilica, was established towards the end of the nineteenth century. The museum contains various exhibits, including Persian carpets, paintings, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, and ancient mosaics. One of the most interesting pieces is the quadriga of St. Mark's, a statue of a four-horse chariot that once adorned the building's façade. The quadriga was re-housed in the museum during the last restoration of the basilica.
St. Mark's Basilica forms the eastern anchor of Piazza San Marco, Venice's only true piazza -- every other public square in the city is technically a "campo" -- and historically the ceremonial heart of the Republic.
The basilica sits where the square opens onto the lagoon, just steps from the waterfront -- a position that made it the first grand structure visitors arriving by sea would see, reinforcing Venice's self-image as a maritime power announced through architecture.
From the Loggia dei Cavalli, visitors can step out onto a balcony overlooking the piazza itself, one of the few elevated public vantage points over the square.