Venetians call it simply la Piazza, since it is the only square in the city entitled to the word; everywhere else is a campo. Doge Sebastiano Ziani gave it its current footprint in the 1170s, filling in a canal and shifting a church to open the space in front of St.
Mark's Basilica, whose four bronze horses (looted by Napoleon in 1797 and restored in 1815) still preside over the western end. The Clocktower dates to 1499, Sansovino redesigned the Biblioteca Marciana in the 1530s, and the long arcaded wings, the Procuratie Vecchie and Nuove, once housed the republic's chief magistrates and now shelter cafés including Caffè Florian, open since 1720. Low-lying and close to sea level, the square floods during acqua alta storm surges, when raised walkways appear overnight and the pavement briefly mirrors the basilica's domes.
