San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio, Rome
San Marco is a minor basilica in Rome dedicated to Saint Mark the Evangelist located in the small Piazza di San Marco adjoining Piazza Venezia. It was first built in 336 by Pope Mark, whose remains are in an urn located below the main altar. The basilica is the national church of Venice in Rome.
South façade of the basilica. To the right, Palazzo Venezia, the former embassy of the Republic of Venice, whose protector was St. Mark
Station days were days of fasting in the early Christian Church, associated with a procession to certain prescribed churches in Rome, where the Mass and Vespers would be celebrated to mark important days of the liturgical year. Although other cities also had similar practices, and the fasting is no longer prescribed, the Roman churches associated with the various station days are still the object of pilgrimage and ritual, especially in the season of Lent.
Gregory the Great set the classic order of churches for the Lenten station days in the sixth century. (The Procession of Saint Gregory to the Castle Sant'Angelo, c. 1465.)
Popes since John XXIII have revived the practice of visiting the station for Ash Wednesday, Santa Sabina all'Aventino.