Saint Mark’s Quay

Venice has a Square, a Palace, a Canal and… a Quay.

St. Mark’s Quay is Venice’s best known and most recognisable waterfront.

Two great columns of Saints Mark and Theodore mark this remarkable landing place, set against the spectacular backdrop of St Mark’s Square, with the Doge’s Palace on one side and the Mint and Library on the other.

For centuries this place was the monumental gateway to the city.

The ambassadors of great foreign powers disembarked here. Ships of all sizes crowded around, taking their places in the Basin, during the departures of the Mudas, a convoy of merchant vessels and Venice’s secret trading weapon.

Unlike other mediaeval shipping convoys, Venetian Mudas were an ingenious alliance between the Venetian State and private concerns: the government made its ships available to private individuals, who could bid for their use in a public auction.

Private interests thus travelled hand in hand with the “public good”. The dense network of Venetian trade routes started here, from St Mark’s Quay, and stretched eastwards from the Mediterranean to the Far East, and northwards as far as Flanders.