Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's
Square, is Venice's most famous square.
What appears to be a rectangle is
actually a trapezium, and when you look
up at the basilica, the piazza seems
enormous, although it is only 175m long.
On both sides of the piazza are the "Procuratie"
buildings, which housed the procurators
of San Marco. The oldest of these (probably
built by Codussi) are on your left when
you face the basilica; Longhena built
the ones on the right later, in 1640.
The most recent buildings, commissioned
by Napoleon in 1810, lie behind