Although this district is the lowest point of the city, and therefore often subject to tides, it is here that the first inhabitants settled, starting to cultivate and build on this small island, perhaps, also thanks to its strategic position between the continental area and the lagoon.
Once, where today stands San Marco Square, a Rio flowed which divided two churches one in front of the other, the first, an oratory dedicated to the patron San Teodoro, which stood on the site where today we find the famous basilica, and the second, a sanctuary dedicated to San Geminiano, located on the other side of the square, near the Correr Museum.
In the year 828, an event definitively marked the fate of the square, making it the political and religious heart of the city. At that time, the good fishermen from Malamocco and Rustego da Torcello, stole from Alexandria of Egypt the body of San Marco Evangelista, taking it to Venezia.
Since then the saint became the patron saint of the city, and the most modest San Teodoro was deposed with his oratory, replacing it with the sumptuous basilica, where the corpse is still preserved. The District, which today extends from the San Marco Basin to the Rialto Bridge, is not only the geographical center of the island, but the pure essence of Venezia.
