San Marco is a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 dedicated to St. Mark located in the small Piazza di San Marco adjoining Piazza Venezia

Piazza Venezia

The Piazza Venezia is a piazza in central Rome, Italy. It takes its name from Cardinal Venezia who built the adjacent Palazzo Venezia, the former embassy of the city of the Republic of Venice....

. It was built in 336 by Pope Mark

Pope Mark

Pope Saint Mark the apostle or Marcus was Pope from January 18, 336 to October 7, 336, date of his death.Little is known of his early life. According to the Liber Pontificalis, he was a Roman, and his father's name was Priscus...

 and rebuilt in 833 by Pope Gregory IV

Pope Gregory IV

Pope Gregory IV was chosen to succeed Valentine in December 827, on which occasion he recognized the supremacy of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious in the most unequivocal manner....

.

History

In 336, Pope Mark built a church devoted to one of the Evangelists, his name bearer St. Mark, in a place called ad Pallacinas. The church is thus recorded as Titulus Marci in the 499 synod of Pope Symmachus

Pope Symmachus

Saint Symmachus was pope from 498 to 514. His tenure was marked by a serious schism over who was legitimately elected pope by the citizens of Rome....

.

After a restoration in 792 by Pope Adrian I

Pope Adrian I

Pope Adrian was pope from February 1, 772 to December 25, 795. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman.Shortly after Adrian's accession the territory ruled by the papacy was invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian was compelled to seek the assistance of the Frankish king...

, the church was rebuilt by Pope Gregory IV in 833.

Besides the addition of a Romanesque belltower in 1154, the major change in the architecture of the church was ordered by Pope Paul II

Pope Paul II

Pope Paul II , born Pietro Barbo, was pope from 1464 until his death in 1471.- Early life :He was born in Venice, and was a nephew of Pope Eugene IV , through his mother. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope...

 in 1465-70, when the inside and the outside of the church were restyled according to the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 taste. On that occasion the church was assigned to the Venetian people living in Rome, Paul II being a Venetian of birth.

The last major reworking of the basilica was started in 1654-57 and completed by Cardinal Angelo Maria Quirini

Angelo Maria Quirini

Angelo Maria Quirini or Querini was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.-Biography:Born in Venice, he entered the Benedictine Order in Florence in 1695 and was ordained in 1702...

 in 1735-50. With these restorations, the church received its current Baroque decoration.

Artworks

The façade (1466) was built with marbles taken from the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

 and the Theatre of Marcellus

Theatre of Marcellus

The Theatre of Marcellus is an ancient open-air theatre in Rome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. At the theatre, locals and visitors alike were able to watch performances of drama and song. Today its ancient edifice in the rione of Sant'Angelo, Rome, once again provides...

, and is attributed to Leon Battista Alberti.

The inside is clearly Baroque. However, the basilica shows noteworthy elements of all her millenary history:

• the apse
  Apse
  In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
  
   mosaics, dating back to Pope Gregory, show the pope, with the squared halo
  Halo (religious iconography)
  A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
  
   of a living person, offering a model of the church to Christ
  Christ
  Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
  
  , in the presence of Mark the Evangelist
  Mark the Evangelist
  Mark the Evangelist is the traditional author of the Gospel of Mark. He is one of the Seventy Disciples of Christ, and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, one of the original four main sees of Christianity....
  
  , Pope Saint Mark
  Pope Mark
  Pope Saint Mark the apostle or Marcus was Pope from January 18, 336 to October 7, 336, date of his death.Little is known of his early life. According to the Liber Pontificalis, he was a Roman, and his father's name was Priscus...
  
   and other saints;
• the wooden ceiling, with the emblem of Pope Paul II
  Pope Paul II
  Pope Paul II , born Pietro Barbo, was pope from 1464 until his death in 1471.- Early life :He was born in Venice, and was a nephew of Pope Eugene IV , through his mother. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope...
  
  , is one of only two original 15th century wooden ceilings in Rome, together with the one at Santa Maria Maggiore;
• the tomb of Leonardo Pesaro (1796) by Antonio Canova
  Antonio Canova
  Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
  
  .