Treasury of San Marco

Under the Venetian Republic when St Mark's was the chapel of the doge, it was entrusted to the procurators of Saint Mark who were responsible for the administration and finances of the basilica. Distinguished foreign visitors were allowed to tour the collection, which was also publicly displayed five times a year. Today a large selection of those objects which have survived can be seen by visitors, though much has been lost, in particular during the French occupation of Venice under Napoleon.

Reliquaries and precious objects used for the liturgical functions in St Mark's Basilica were initially kept in various locations within the church. The creation of the treasury seems to date to the early thirteenth century when many objects were plundered by the Venetians from the churches, monasteries, and palaces of Constantinople during the sack of the city (1204) in the Fourth Crusade and sent to Venice as spoils of war by Doge Enrico Dandolo who led the Venetian forces. These objects were largely destroyed in a fire in 1231: only a fragment of the True Cross, an ampulla containing the Precious Blood of Christ, and a relic of Saint John the Baptist survived. However, an inventory of 1283 shows that the treasury had been recreated by that time. The new collection included works of art brought back to Venice by the Venetians in 1261 when they were expelled from Constantinople as well as gifts from foreign rulers and objects produced locally. Over time, the collection also included precious objects that had originally been deposited as security for loans from the government and then kept as a result of default, as well as items deposited for safety by private individuals and then unclaimed. • Illustration — Icon of Saint Michael (late-tenth/early-eleventh century) The current collection represents only a fraction of the former content of the treasury. After the fall of the Venetian Republic to Napoleon in 1797, the French ordered that all objects in precious metal that were not ordinarily used for religious services were to be deposited in the mint where many were melted down to obtain 535 kilograms of gold and silver. Gold thread was removed from embroidered vestments, and precious gems were pried out of their settings. In 1798, during the first period of Austrian rule of Venice (1798–1805), the surviving objects were returned to the treasury, and in 1801 five important manuscripts belonging to the basilica were transferred to the Marciana Library. Among these was the Grimani Breviary, the illuminated Flemish breviary that once belonged to Domenico Cardinal Grimani. Periodically, during the second period of French domination (1805–1814) and in the second period of Austrian rule (1814–1866), objects from the treasury had to be sold in order to raise funds to finance necessary repair work on the basilica.