Alexander’s presence in Venice – Part 1, his tomb

It should not come as a surprise to find traces and testimonies of the glory of Alexander in Venice, Italy, centrally located between East and West. It is remarkable though that it dates to so many centuries after his death! 

The first time I heard of Alexander being linked to Venice was in Andrew Chugg’s book, The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great. During his investigation, the author found a stone in the Cloister of Sant’Apollonia displaying a well-preserved relief of a Macedonian star together with remains of military panoply. 

In his next book, The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great Chugg develops his findings leading to the time where the worship of Alexander as the Founder of Alexandria is curiously overlapped by St Mark, the Founder of the Alexandrian Church shortly after 391 AD. This coincides with the disappearance of Alexander’s corpse and the first appearance of St Mark’s tomb. In 828 AD, the corpse of St Mark was abducted by the Venetians, who on 8^th October 1094 placed it in a tomb in the crypt of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. Because of the repeated flooding, the tomb became at risk in its downstairs crypt, and in 1811 it was moved to the high altar on the main floor where it still stands today. 

The key question is: are these remains indeed those of St Mark or could they belong to Alexander the Great, swapped somewhere back in the obscure days of the 4^th century AD? 

A simple visual examination could give enough clues to assert whether or not this body is Alexander’s, based on the wounds he received during his life. Another possibility would be a facial reconstruction that would faithfully disclose the face of either Mark or Alexander. A stunning thought! But the Church does not allow any access to the corpse or any form of examination whatsoever. 

[Cloister of Sant'Apollonia, shield with Macedonian star and remains of panoply]

Returning to the artifacts at the Cloister of Sant’Apollonia, they were recovered when the corpse was moved from the crypt to the present location in the Basilica. One stone of 140x120x30 cm displays a Macedonian shield of 70 cm in diameter, i.e., life-size. Besides the typical relief of the 8-pointed starburst shield, the relief shows a Macedonian sword, the kopis, and a pair of greaves. How or why it ended up at the Cloister remains a mystery despite Chugg’s insistence on an independent thorough examination of the stone! 

The material itself holds its secret. An early analysis in 1998 established that the bloc must have belonged to a large Hellenistic monument dated to the 3^rd or early 2^nd century BC. The article from “La Rivista di Engramma” n. 76, December 2009, describes it as decoration for a Roman commemorative, honorary, or funerary monument honoring Alexander the Great from the 1^st century BC. It also defines the stone as Aurisina, after a marble quarry about 15 kilometers from Trieste. This origin is hard to reconcile with a sarcophagus imported from Alexandria. 

For now, the mystery remains intact.

[Continue reading Alexander's presence in Venice - Part 2, from Constantinople]