Venice’s most famous cathedral is calling for urgent funding to save its precious marble and mosaic floor after surging floodwaters did decades of damage in a day.
St. Mark’s Basilica, which attracts more than 5 million visitors a year, was filled with nearly a meter of water at the end of October, this is the worst flooding seen in the city since 1872.
Carlo Alberto Tesserin, the basilica’s administrator said the church had “aged 20 years in a day” and estimates repairs will cost 2.7 million euros.