St Mark's Basilica

A topographical cabinet card showing a view of St Mark's Basilica (Italian: Basilica di San Marco) at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. One of the world's most famous churches, the Italo-Byzantine building was originally the private chapel of the Doge and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807.

Photographed by Carlo Ponti of Venice.

Carlo Ponti studied photography in Paris in the 1840s. In 1852, he obtained a license to produce and sell photographs in Venice. He ran the first of the big photographic businesses in the city, producing albums with architectural views of great artistic sensitivity. He was also the inventor of camera lenses suitable for panoramic photography.