Markuskirken er en af de mest besøgte seværdigheder i Venedig og et must-see på enhver rejsendes rejseplan i Italien! Men med en historie, der strækker sig helt tilbage til det 9. århundrede e.Kr., er det også en kirke med en masse interessante historier og legender bag sig. Her er seks af de mest fascinerende fakta om Markuskirken!

1 Basilikaen begyndte med en svirpende historie om kidnapning

Den første Markuskirken blev bygget på dette sted i det 9. århundrede for at huse meget hellige relikvier - relikvier, der var blevet stjålet! I 828 stjal købmænd fra Venedig liget af den hellige evangelist Markus, en af de fire apostle, fra Alexandria i Egypten. Ifølge legenden sneg de sig forbi de (muslimske) vagter ved at skjule dem under lag af svinekød i tønder!

Da en storm på havet næsten druknede graverobberne og deres dyrebare last, siges det, at Markus selv viste sig for kaptajnen og bad ham sænke sejlene. Skibet blev reddet, og købmændene sagde, at de skyldte deres sikkerhed til miraklet.

Hele historien er afbildet på en mosaik fra det 13. århundrede over den venstre dør, når man træder ind i basilikaen.

2 Der er nok mosaik til at dække 1,5 amerikanske fodboldbaner!

There are more than 85,000 square feet (or 8,000 square meters) of mosaic in St. Mark’s Basilica… or enough mosaic to cover over 1.5 American football fields! The mosaics were done over 8 centuries, mostly in gold, and the result is astonishing. Enter the basilica at different times of day to see how the light makes the colors and scenes, look different.

3 Der er mere end 500 kolonner

Et andet eksempel på den enorme størrelse og mængden af fantastiske ting i Markusbasilikaen er antallet af søjler. Der er mere end 500 søjler og kapitæler i basilikaen, og de fleste er byzantinske og stammer fra det 6. til det 11. århundrede. Der er også blandet nogle klassiske kapitæler fra det 3. århundrede ind i mellem!

4 Mange af basilikaens skatte stammer fra korstogene og fra Konstantinopel

Især det fjerde korstog gav Markusbasilikaen en gevinst. Det var trods alt det korstog, der endte i 1204 med erobringen af Konstantinopel (det nuværende Istanbul).

The result? A lot of treasure was shipped to Venice, and installed in St. Mark’s Basilica — including the four bronze horses, an icon of the Madonna Nicopeia, enamels of the Golden Altar-piece, relics, crosses, chalices, and patens!

5 Pala d'Oro gør kronjuvelerne til skamme

Glem alt om de glitrende perler i Tower of London: Markusbasilikaen er ikke noget for kongefamilien! Pala d'Oro, en byzantinsk alterskærm af guld, er fyldt med hundredvis af ædelstene - bogstaveligt talt. De omfatter 1.300 perler, 300 smaragder, 300 safirer, 400 granater, 100 ametyster samt rubiner og topaser.

6 Det klokketårn? Det er engang styrtet sammen

Markuskirkens 98,6 meter høje campanile stammer helt tilbage fra det 9. århundrede... men den måtte genopbygges i 1903. Årsagen? Den kollapsede! Den var blevet ombygget i det 16. århundrede, og tilsyneladende ikke så godt.

Den styrtede sammen den 14. juli 1902. (For at være fair, havde det overlevet flere jordskælv før det!). Selv om det begravede basilikaens balkon i murbrokker, blev selve kirken heldigvis reddet. Men hændelsen var pinlig nok!

Fra 1903 til 1912 blev klokketårnet genopbygget nøjagtigt som det havde været... bortset fra med bedre og mere sikre teknikker.

Okay, vi nævnte seks, men da vi er i gang, er her mere fascinerende indsigt:

• Guldstykkerne i mosaikkerne i Markuskirken er lavet af ÆGTE guldstykker!

Venice was in the past a very wealthy city of merchants: what the Republic lacked in military strength or in land domination, it had in riches. The basilica’s mosaics are not just a way to please God and St. Mark or to communicate complex religious concepts, they were also a way to show the wealth of the city to important guests, like kings or ambassadors from other countries.

De gyldne stykker er faktisk lavet af guld: hver enkelt har et tyndt bladguld, der er "indlejret" mellem to lag klart glas. Med en sådan udstilling af kostbare materialer kunne venetianerne på samme tid vise deres store hengivenhed, men også deres politiske "vægt": en yderst vigtig ting for et så lille land.

• De store ydre kupler over basilikaen er faktisk falske!

In Venice, it’s impossible to build huge structures: the terrain is frail, so you have to carefully stick to small, light and flexible buildings. But the Venetians had to find a way to astonish their guests: so they optimized some very clever tricks to cheat the eye and give everyone the impression that the buildings are huge and imposing.

In St. Mark’s Basilica, there is a great example of this: the five big domes that give the building its distinctive shape are just a superstructure made of wood covered with a thin layer of lead. They are actually completely empty: the brick-built domes with the mosaics that you see inside the church are much lower.

We can arguably say that the only role of those big empty domes is to make the building look much bigger than it really is: this way the ships approaching the city could recognize its shape from afar, and be even more astonished by the legendary city rising from the waters.

• I 2019 oversvømmede en stor "acqua alta" kirken fuldstændigt!

In the Venetian Lagoon, there are tides: sometimes these tides go higher than normal and as a result, some parts of the city get flooded. St. Mark’s Square is the lowest part of the city, so it’s pretty common to see its floor partially or totally submerged in water.

But on November 12, 2019, things went completely out of control: the tide rose so high that it reached the second-highest level ever recorded in the history of the city. The custodians of the church were unprepared for this event: the water not only flooded the antechamber of the basilica, which is at the same level as the square but also the church itself, which is much higher.

The damage was substantial and the building is still recovering: at least this tragic event gave a big push to the completion of the MOSE project, a system of mobile barriers meant to protect the Lagoon from the most dangerous tides. The barriers were tested a couple of times in 2020 and apparently, they worked fine: we all hope they will be able to protect the basilica in the future.

• Markusbasilikaen er ikke den ældste eller den største kirke i Venedig!

The St. Mark’s Basilica was built starting from the IX century: but the history of Venice starts way before that moment, in the V-VI century. So there are churches around the city that predate the most important monument: according to historians, the oldest holy building of the city could be the church of San Giacometto, very close to the Rialto bridge. The Rialto area was, in fact, the first spot that was colonized when the islands started to be populated: the city of Venice was actually called “Rialto” for the first centuries.

Despite its enormous size, at least in proportion with the other buildings of the city,  St. Mark’s Basilica is also not the biggest church: this title goes to the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, home to the very powerful Dominican monastic order. Their monastery was so big that when Napoleon conquered Venice he chose that building to become the first big public hospital in the city: and the hospital is there still today! You can learn more about San Giacometto and Santi Giovanni e Paolo if you take the Welcome to Venice tour or the Venice in a Day tour, which both feature these very important churches!

Special thanks go to our Walks of Italy guide Mosè Viero for sharing these additional interesting facts about St. Mark’s Basilica. 

Hvis du vil vide mere, kan du læse vores oplevelser i Venedig af både Markuskirken og Dogepaladset - eller, hvis du vil have et rigtigt VIP-besøg, få adgang til Markuskirken efter lukketid, når den er lukket for offentligheden!