Description & Facts: Venezia, La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic Sea, city of canals and palaces, was for a thousand years one of the most enduring mercantile sea powers on earth. Flamboyant and radiantly beautiful, Venice owes her grandeur to the sea, a bond celebrated yearly through regattas. Today it is a human tide that washes over her — millions come to capture a glimmer of her charms. In 810 , the Rialto island was the site of the first major constructions in this sea town, which included Saint Mark's Basilica in 828, designed to house the supposed relics of the Saint and those from the Benedictine monasteries of San Servolo, San Zaccaria and San Giorgio. The Basilica di San Marco is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies on St Mark's Square adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Building work on the first chapel to honor the freshly arrived corpse of St Mark, which Venetian merchants stole from Alexandria, Egypt, began in 828. On the loggia above the main door are copies of the delightful prancing horses that were also hijacked from Constantinople (the gilded-bronze originals are on display inside). The Horses of Saint Mark were installed on the basilica in about 1254. They date back to classical antiquity; by some accounts they once adorned the Arch of Trajan. The basilica's 10th-century campanile, a 99m-tall bell tower, collapsed without warning on 14 July 1902, and was rebuilt brick by brick Oddly, it