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The relics
Two merchants carried Saint Mark's body from Egypt to Venice
Medieval chronicles say two Venetian merchants took the body of Saint Mark, without the head, from Alexandria in Egypt to Venice in 828 or 829. The first church built for the relics was completed by 836.
The Doge's chapel
It was the Doge's chapel, not the city's cathedral, until 1807
St Mark's was built as a state sanctuary, not an ecclesiastical seat. Until the republic fell in 1797 it was the chapel of the Doge, and only in 1807 did it become the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.
The fire
In 976 a crowd set a fire to drive out the Doge, and the church burned too
In 976 angry crowds set a fire to drive Doge Pietro IV Candiano from the castrum, and it spread to the church. The general assembly had to meet in another cathedral to elect his successor. Within two years the church was repaired.
The plunder
Columns and four bronze horses came from Constantinople
Many of the columns, reliefs and sculptures are spoils stripped from the churches, palaces and monuments of Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade. Four ancient bronze horses brought back to Venice were placed prominently over the entry.
The mosaics
The mosaics were retouched and remade for eight hundred years
Gold-ground mosaics slowly covered the domes, vaults and upper walls. Many were retouched or remade as tastes changed, so together they show eight hundred years of artistic styles. Some follow drawings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Titian, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno.
Day 1, morning
Next is Grand Canal.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article St Mark's Basilica, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.