St. Mark’s Campanile

Slowly sauntering through the throngs of St. Mark’s Square, one can’t help but feel connected to the centuries of visitors who have also oogled over this ancient piazza. Hearing the bells of the commanding Campanile, a bystander might believe it to be the sound of bells hundreds of years old. However, this towering icon is closer in age to its copy in Las Vegas than St. Mark’s Basilica.

On July 14th, 1902, a great tragedy struck the city of Venice. The Campanile, gracing the skyline of Venice since the 9th Century, had been showing signs of major structural damage with large cracks in the tower’s brick walls. The morning of the 14th, the great tower all of a sudden rumbled to the ground, leaving only a pile of bricks, metal, and stone in its wake. While it was one of the greatest tragedies in the city’s long history, luckily, no one was hurt, with only the Campanile custodian’s cat as the lone casualty.

City officials quickly agreed to rebuild the bell tower exactly as it had been (with some modern improvements, of course). Spurred by international newspapers, people from around the globe donated to help the rebuilding efforts, including Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. Using modern engineering and new techniques to make sure the tower would never collapse like it had again, the facade was a masterful copy of the latest iteration of the iconic tower, as it had looked since the early 16th Century. On the feast of St. Mark in April 1912, the new Campanile was inaugurated with a convivial ceremony—almost one thousand years after the initial tower’s stones were first laid and ten years after its collapse.

Today, Venice and its Campanile greet millions of visitors every year from all over the world, with many passing through St. Mark’s Square never knowing the city’s landmark tower to be a faithful reproduction. From the gilded statue of St. Gabriel to the observation deck offering some of the best views of the city, the famous bell tower operates as if it never left. Now, with a convenient elevator.