Cathedral Basilica of Saints Mary & Donato
Byzantine basilica with a shimmering medieval mosaic floor and dragon bones behind its altar.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Mary and Donato in Venice starts with four huge rib bones hanging behind the altar, which locals say belonged to a dragon slain by a wonder-working bishop named Donatus in Greece. It follows the relics' journey west, brought here around 1125 by the Venetian doge Domenico Michiel returning from a crusade, and the church's grand rebuilding that followed. Look down as you listen, too: the mosaic floor beneath your feet was laid the very year that rebuilding finished.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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