| The mosaics | Art for the liturgy
| Textile treasure | Rites and melodies | The evidence of power | Catalogue/Guide | Plan your visit | 
During the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the basilica of St. Mark has undergone many restoration and consolidation works, during which the marble decoration and coverings of the facades have been removed. The damaged marbles, not only the covering panels, but also decorations and capitals are replaced with new materials partly altering the original decorative.
The fragments are now exhibited inside the new St. Mark's Museum.
The four capitals displayed exemplify the types of those on the façades:
from the corinthian capital in elegant imperial Roman style, to the
composite capital with closely indented acanthus leaves and the two
refined examples of capitals from the Justinian period, from Constantinople.
The decorated slabs are an example, not only of the types in the basilica,
but of the whole iconographic repertoire of late-ancient and mid-Byzantine
architectural decoration.
The decorative schemes can be divided into three groups: one geometrical,
one symbolical and one with animals.