Not everyone knows that the Church of San Pietro di Castello was the cathedral of Venice until 1807, while the Basilica of St. Mark was the private chapel of the Doges.
It was Napoleon who transformed St. Mark’s Basilica into the most important church in Venice, removing the title from San Pietro.
On the road leading to the Church of San Pietro, a white stone can be seen in the middle of the grey pavement in Campo San Pietro.
This stone marks the exact spot where the Doge and the Patriarch of Venice would meet when the former went to visit the latter every year on June 26, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
The Patriarch, representing religious authority, would meet the Doge, the representative of political power.
To avoid creating the image that political power was subordinated by walking all the way to the church in Castello, or that religious power was servile by walking to meet the Doge at his boat’s arrival, a compromise was made:
a fixed meeting point was established, to which both figures would arrive on foot.
This point was identified in Campo San Pietro, and so — at the location of today’s white stone — the Patriarch of Venice would walk to meet the Doge, who would do the same, thus placing both powers symbolically on the same level.
