Doge Contarini remodeled the cathedral in 1063. Byzantine and Lombard workmen were employed, and the two styles of architecture were joined. The low brick cupolas were covered by high domes of wood roofed with metal. Parts of the walls were sheathed with slabs of alabaster. Incrusted marbles and mosaics were used further to decorate the outside. Then in the fifteenth century the Gothic pinnacles and other florid adornments of the exterior were added. The final result is the finest piece of many-colored architecture in Europe. The Cathedral of St. Mark is in its present form a Greek cross, surmounted by a dome at each end and one in the center. The west front has five great porches opening upon the Piazza di San Marco. The church contains five hundred columns, mostly in oriental style, with richly ornamented capitals. The top of the narthex (that part of the church nearest the main entrance) forms a wide gallery, in the center of which stand the four great bronze horses which are said to have belonged to some Greco-Roman triumphal quadriga, and to have been brought to Venice by Doge Enrico Dandolo after the fall of Constantinople in 1204. In 1797 Napoleon carried them to Paris; but they were restored by Francis of Austria in 1815. The _pala d’oro_, or retable of the high altar, is one of the chief glories of St. Mark’s, and is one of the most magnificent specimens of goldsmiths’ and jewelers’ work in existence. The famous treasury of St. Mark’s contains a precious collection of church plate, jeweled book bindings, and other artistic treasures of the early Middle Ages. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 27, SERIAL No. 27 [Illustration: THE CAMPANILE AND DOGE’S PALACE, VENICE] _VENICE_ _The Campanile and Doge’s Palace_ TWO On July 14, 1902, the Campanile or bell tower of St. Mark’s Cathedral fell to earth with a crash. Earthquakes and a rotting foundation at length worked its ruin. But its reconstruction was begun in 1905, and the new tower was completed in 1911, nine years after the fall. The Campanile stands, as is usually the case in Italy, detached from the church. The first bell tower on this site was built in 900. The one that fell in 1992 was probably erected in 1329.