Venice - Procurators Office Procuratie

Must-see attractions nearby: St Marks Square Doges Palace Colleoni Monument Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Basilica of St Mark Academy of Fine Arts Rialto Bridge

After the Doge, he was the most important man in the State and was answerable to no one, not even the Great Council. The Procurator was the "Custodian of St Mark", of the wealth that accumulated in the coffers of the Basilica di San Marco as a result of public and private gifts, bequests and regular income. The sums in question were enormous, since a donation was always made to St Mark as a matter of course in thanksgiving for a successful and profitable enterprise.

It was with this huge fortune that the State financed all that it owned, the construction of San Marco and every one of its welfare institutions: hospitals, alms distribution, hostels for the homeless, homes for the aged and orphanages - institutions that guaranteed even the poorest the means of subsistence.

It soon became impossible for one person to shoulder alone the burden of the work that came to be involved in administering the public purse; in the 13th century there were four Procurators, in 1319 six and in 1442 nine.