Venice:Castello:Churches

Cristo Re alla Celestia Favaretto Fisca/Lirussi 1950-52
A modern church! In Venice! History The original church building dates from 1459. Along with its convent it was closed by Napoleon in the early 19th Century, but re-established by the Franciscan Nuns of Christ in 1878. In 1950 work began on a new larger church, designed by the engineer G. Favaretto Fisca and the architect G. Lirussi. The building was consecrated in 1952 and at present houses the Institute of the Franciscan Nuns of Christ the King, founded by Princess Benedetta Savoia Carignano and Angela Canal, a noblewoman from Venice. Interior I've never visited, or indeed found, this church but it has a nave and two aisles and a coffered ceiling, we're told. There is a gallery connecting the church to the convent, and a small chapel to the right of the entrance. A visit (8.2008) Brigitte Eckert, a Venetian-church-lover and kind provider of many photos to this site, spoke to a passing nun and managed to get invited in. She writes... She asked me to come in because this was one of the rare times (as she told me) when the church door is open. There were some very slim very pale nuns dressed in white, kneeling in prayer and moving noiselessly and kind of ghostly about so there was no way to take pictures inside. But it is like you describe it: a 2-storeys high nave and 2 aisles with the 2 storeys separated. There are 6 round vaults on each side of the nave in the ground floor and 12 on the second floor (looks like the first 2 storeys in the Fondacho dei Tedeschi, the post office at the Rialto). I suppose the second floors of the aisles are to have the nuns separated and invisible. If you look at the windows from outside there is the suggestion they are high, but inside they're separated between the 2 storeys and simply rectangular in the ground floor (the second floor windows you can't see from inside). The ceiling is plainly coffered in white and golden little squares, the floor is white Istrian stone very brightly polished with a few black transverse inlay lines. There is space for 11 rows of pews. I didn't look into the (very very!) small chapel right of the entrance, would have been kind of indiscreetness. It's very typical post-war church architecture, functional, humble. The only decorations are an embroidered cloth of a cross in the apse, colourful and in a modern kind of Byzantine impression, and small bronze Way of the Cross sculptures at the walls of the aisles, also typical 50s style.		Photos by Brigitte Eckert
La Pietà Giorgio Massari 1745-60
History Famous as the church of the adjacent Ospedale della Pietà, the orphanage where Vivaldi taught and for whose talented girls he composed most of his concerti and oratorios. The current building dates to a rebuilding of the chapel of the Pietà between 1745-60 on a new site. It was built well after Vivaldi's death, but it is possible that the composer advised the architect, Giorgio Massari, on the positioning of the choirs and the use of a vestibule to provide a barrier to the noises of the Riva. Massari won a competition in 1735 to provide plans for the reconstruction of the whole complex, but only the church was built. The façade was finally finished in 1906. Interior Oval-shaped, like a concert hall, and designed for acoustics. Ceiling painting The Coronation of the Virgin by Tiepolo. Opening times You might get a limited look when the box office is open, but otherwise you'll have to stump up for tickets to listen to a concert of (reportedly unsparkling) performances of Vivaldi concerti to get a good look. Vaporetto San Zaccaria
San Biagio Francesco Bognolo 1749-54
Photo by Brigitte Eckert		History Tradition has it founded in the 11th Century, with the original church being built by the Boncigli family for the use of new immigrants. From 1470 the Council of Ten allowed the church to be used by Venice's large Greek Orthodox community, considered heretics at the time and so only allowed the use of this small and non-central church, until they moved to San Giorgio in 1543. The present church dates from a rebuilding of 1749-54 by Francesco Bognolo, the architect of the Arsenale. True to its more than somewhat functional appearance it is now part of the naval museum next door with a naval chaplain officiating at rare services. Interior Ceiling frescoes attributed to Scagliaro are reported. Through the wrought-iron inner door you might glimpse the monument to Admiral Angelo Emo, by Giovanni Ferrari, taken from Santa Maria dei Servi and placed here in 1818. He was the last admiral of the Venetian Navy, who defeated the Bey of Tunis in 1784-86 and invented the floating battery, which can be seen with him on his monument. There are five altars taken from the church of Sant'Anna. The local scuola, and their patron saints, commemorated in the church include not only the rope-makers and hemp-tanners you'd expect, but also the cap-makers, doughnut vendors and vendors of cheap food. Opening times Rarely Vaporetto Arsenale
San Francesco della Vigna Jacopo Sansovino 1534/Andrea Palladio 1568-72/Pietro & Tullio Lombardo
In a quiet and distant part of the city you stumble across a church with a very harmonious and pleasing interior, two calm cloisters, and a satisfying mixture of art. History This church is built on the spot where, tradition says, Saint Mark was told by an angel that the Lagoon was to be his resting place. The original medieval church was built by Franciscans in 1253, on the site of vineyard, hence the church's name, and can be seen only on de'Barbari's map of the city. In 1534 Sansovino's reconstruction created arguably the first Venetian Renaissance interior, at the behest of Doge Andrea Gritti. But he failed to complete the façade (his design is now only preserved on a medal) and so on the 1560s Giovanni Grimini paid for one from Palladio. It was his first ecclesiastical commission and it's a fine and soaring thing (and unusually three-dimensional) but is unfortunately rarely on any route that one uses when approaching this church. The Palladian-style overhead gallery supported on pillars, which is usually one's first view of this church (right) was built in the mid-19th Century by A. Pigazzi. It linked the former Convento delle Pizzochere to the West, which had been acquired by the Observant Franciscans in 1838, with the Palazzo Nunciato, which had previously been a palace belonging to Doge Andrea Gritti, who is buried in the church. (This palazzo housed the Papal Legate, a fact commemorated by the nearby Salizzade della Gatte, or alley of the female cats, a sweet corruption: la gatte/legate, you see?) Both buildings were taken over by the Italian government in 1866 for use as a military tribunal. The church The interior is in the shape of a Latin cross with a single nave and no aisles, but the nave has been extended to form a T-shape: the symbol of salvation and perfection. The harmonious and plainly pleasing interior is in keeping with the austerity of the Observant Franciscans' beliefs, and is said to derive from Prior Francesco Zianni's study of neo-Platonic proportions, and his subsequent messing with Sansovino's plans to reflect these beliefs. The proportions were adjusted to revolve around the sacred geometry of the number three, as set out in Friar Francesco Giorgi's De harmonia mundi of 1525 (This book remained a standard work of renaissance occult philosophy for a century, but has never been translated into a modern language.) The Ark of the Covenant and The Temple of Solomon were made to the same proportions, or so the theory goes, and there's a relation to musical harmony in there too. Art highlights Giustiniani chapel contains an altarpiece that was Veronese's first piece of work in Venice. Another Giustiniani chapel has a bas-relief of the life of Christ by Pietro Lombardo, with reliefs of the four evangelists by his son Tullio. The Capella Santa contains a Virgin and child with saints and donor, a late Giovanni Bellini which is very undisappointing, but the donor was added later by a hand not Bellini's. Vasari says that Bellini originally provided the church with 'a beautiful picture of the dead Christ', which was so admired by King Louis XI of France that it had to be presented to him as a gift, and that the replacement was less good and reputed to be mostly the work of a pupil of Bellini called Girolamo Mocetti Also an odd Madonna and child by Brother Negroponte. It's his only work, and although it was painted in the mid 15th century it's eccentrically gothic with a sumptuously-painted gown on the Virgin, painted paper inserts and some quirky figures and architecture. The Save Venice pages for this church have good reproductions of these paintings. The church in art View of the Campo and the Church of San Francesco della Vigna by Francesco Guardi (below right). Ruskin said Base Renaissance, but must be visited in order to see the John Bellini. Cloisters In a city not chock-full of such spaces this church has a connected pair of lovely, visitable and photographable cloisters (right). Campanile One of Venice's tallest, by Bernardo Ongarin from the 1570s, reworked in the 1600s. Opening times Daily 8.00-12.30, 3.00-7.00 Vaporetto Celestia
San Francesco di Paula 1588-1619
What's with the clock painted onto the façade? History In 1291 Bartolomeo Querini, the Bishop of Castello had a hospice built here for the elderly and the infirm, with an attached oratory. This complex was taken over by the Friars Minor in 1580, who converted the hospice to a monastery eight years later and built the church, which was consecrated in 1619. The monastery was suppressed in 1806 and demolished in 1855. Interior Remodelled in the late 18th Century, but the ceiling was left. An aisleless nave with a barco (choir stall) along the back wall and stretching down the sides. Ceiling panels by Giovanni Contarini (1603), and several altarpieces by Palma il Giovanni. Also San Francesco di Paula heals a possessed man, one of the series of scenes from the life of the saint, is said to be by Giandomenico Tiepolo. Presbytery vault frescoes by Michele Schiavone. Opening times Vaporetto Giardini		Photo by Brigitte Eckert
San Giorgio dei Greci Sante Lombardo & Giannantonio Chiona 1539-1573
History Built for the Greek community in Venice, who had previously shared the church of San Biagio, and which numbered around 4000 at the time. Greek scholars contributed much towards Venice's dominance of the printing trade, and to it's eminence as a seat of Renaissance learning. The church was financed by taxing all Greek ships arriving in Venice. The church Built in a Renaissance style reminiscent of Sansovino, by Sante Lombardo until his death in 1547, and finished by Chiona in 1573. The church was consecrated in 1561, with the cupola by Chiona (and not Palladio, as was once claimed) added ten years later. The adjoining late-17th Century buildings are by Longhena, whose work unites the complex. They are the Collegio Flangini and the smaller Scuola di San Nicolo, now a museum of Byzantine icons. The wall along the canal is also by Longhena. Interior Orthodox in style, aisleless with a women's gallery (about the construction of which Palladio was said to have been consulted) and an iconostasis, the traditional Orthodox altar screen, with icons by the 16th Century Cretan artist Michele Damaskinos, amongst others. The monument to Gabriele Seviros is said to be the first known work by Baldassare Longhena. Campanile Built in 1582-92 by Simone Sorella, and leaning ever since (see right). It's adjoining loggia is all that remains of the Renaissance cloister. Opening times Monday, Wednesday – Saturday: 9.00-1.00, 3.00-5.00 Vaporetto San Zaccaria
San Giovanni Battista in Bragora 1475
		History The meaning of in Bragora is uncertain. It could refer to a square (agora), a fishing site (bragolare: to fish), or a marshy area (brago) combined with a stagnant canal (gora). Tradition puts the first church on this site as among the mother churches founded by St Magnus in the 7th Century, but the earliest written record dates to the 9th. The current Gothic church is a late 15th Century rebuilding. The church The façade is transitional: harking back to the gothic of, say, the Frari but verging on the renaissance style of Codussi and San Zaccaria. The interior has a ship's-keel roof and old columns. The architect Massari, who designed the church of the Pietà, where Vivaldi famously taught, is buried here. Art highlights Remains of 15th Century frescoes, and good stuff by Vivarini and Cima de Conigliano. Also the Deposition by Bastiani, taken from the church of Sant'Antonino. Vivaldi connection He was born in a house in Calle del Dose nearby on 4th March 1678 and was baptised in this church two months later on the 6th of May. In fact this was his second baptism - he'd been hurriedly baptised at home as it was thought that he was too sickly to survive. The font is on display here, as is a copy of the entry in the registry of births. Campanile The original one can be seen on Barbari's map of 1500 (left) but was demolished in 1826 and replaced by the current square belfry. Opening times Monday - Saturday: 3.30 – 5.30 Vaporetto San Zaccaria or Arsenale
San Giovanni di Malta 1565
History The church of San Giovanni del Tempio and the adjacent hospital of St Catherine were built in the 11th-12th Century by the Knights Templar of St John. After the dissolution of the Knights Templar the church passed to the Knights of St John of Rhodes, later called the Knights of Malta. The present church dates from a total rebuilding finished in 1565. Church and monastery were suppressed and stripped by the French in the early 19th Century, but repossessed and reopened by the Knights of Malta in 1839 using altars and sculpture from other suppressed churches. The interior Three statues on the high altar (early 16th Century, by Cristoforo del Legname) of saints by Bartolomeo Bergamasco taken from demolished church of San Geminiano. The large cloister contains many tombs of knights. Said also to contain a Baptism of Christ by the school of Giovanni Bellini. Vaporetto San Zaccaria or Arsenale Opening times
San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti Vincenzo Scamozzi/Antonio Sardi/Francesco Contin 1601-73
		History The name derives from the Mendicant Friars who founded the Hospice of St Lazarus in 1601, one of the four Ospedali Maggiori. The cloisters of the hospice and the body of the church were designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi and finished in 1631, after his death, with consecration five years later. The canal-facing façade, designed by Antonio Sardi and based upon an earlier design by Scamozzi and built by Sardi's son Giuseppe, was not finished until 1673. Interior The front door is rarely opened, with access gained usually from the ospedali, now the city hospital. It was open on my last visit, due to a funeral taking place, but this rather dissuaded me from visiting. I did walk into the tiled hallway, used as a funerary chapel, which is between these doors and the actual church doors, with the cloisters stretching out to through doorways left and right. In this hallway are several monuments, including two by Sardi, one of these is to Alvise Mocenigo, who defeated the Turks in Crete in the 1650s. The church also has many tombs, including two designed by Longhena, and one for the Rezzonico family. The interior of the church (1634-37) was designed by Francesco Contin. Vivaldi connection Vivaldi's father taught violin at the music school here from 1689-1693. There is a grating in the church behind which the orphan girls sang. Art highlights A Crucifixion 'almost certainly' by Veronese, and taken from the San Salvatore degli Incurabili church. As was The Arrival of St Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins at Cologne (see left) by Tintoretto. Opening times Rarely, except for services. Vaporetto Ospedale
San Lio 16th Century
History The original 9th Century church was built by the Badoer family and dedicated to St Catherine. Rebuilt in 1054 and rededicated to the canonised Pope Leo IX, a supporter of Venice. Early in the 16th Century the church was rebuilt by Pietro Lombardo and his son. Reconsecration followed in 1619 and the campanile was demolished mid-century. The church was then restored in 1783, with a plain façade retaining the Doric doorway (see right) from the early-16th Century church. Interior An aisleless nave created in the 18th Century with four side chapels, The inner façade has tall credenzas used by local confraternities to house their vestments and such. The lovely Gussoni chapel to the right of the high altar is early worh by Pietro (and possibly Tulio) Lombardo. Restoration in the mid-80s revealed, beneath layers of plaster, fresco decoration between the cupola ribs - a rare remainder in the work of the Lombardos. Canaletto is, tradition says, buried in this chapel and was baptised in this church. Art highlights Works by Giandomenico Tiepolo, including ceiling frescoes, an altarpiece by Palma Giovane, and a late and damaged Titian painting of the Apostle James. The church in art Miracle of the Relic of the Holy Cross in Campo San Lio (see right) c.1494, by Giovanni Manseti is in the Accademia. The church's façade (presumably the pre-Lombardo version) is to the right in the painting. Vaporetto Rialto Opening times Daily 9.00-12.00
San Lorenzo Simone Sorella, 1592-1602
		Venice's biggest (and most shamefully) closed church. History The original church is said to have been founded in the 6th-7th Century, with its Benedictine convent established in 863 by Orso Partecipazio, who became Doge the year after. The current church dates from a complete rebuilding by Sorella in 1592-1602. Marco Polo was buried here, but his sarcophagus was lost during the rebuilding. The church was badly damaged in World War 1, after which its art (much of which had come from suppressed churches) was removed and it was closed. The convent was later converted into a hospital. The church has been undergoing restoration for ever. Rumour has it that the deep excavations that have been going on will result in a museum here showing Venice's history down the layers. Quotes In Dressed for Death Donna Leon's Commisario Brunetti says: “The brick façade of San Lorenzo had been free of scaffolding for the last few months but the church still remained closed….he knew that the church would never be reopened, not in his lifetime….” In his famous guidebook Lorenzetti says that the altar is “monumental…a massive work of classical inspiration with a rich tabernacle ornamented with hard stones, statues of Angels and Saints, and low-reliefs in bronze.” In art Clothing Ceremony of a Nun at San Lorenzo, a 1789 painting by Gabriel Bella (left) shows the interior of the church. The painting is in the Querini Stampalia. Opening times None Vaporetto San Zaccaria Update: October 2007 San Lorenzo is still very closed, but the scaffolding is gone and the excavations, with their hoardings, seem to be over, leaving a large and impressive campo, with new benches for lunching workers. The campo is also home to a Dingo cat sanctuary. Read more about this (with photos) on my other website.
San Martino Sansovino 1546 - 1619
History Traditionally said to have been founded in the 6th-7th Century, but more reliable sources say the 10th. Several rebuildings followed with the current church dating from a rebuilding to a design by Sansovino begun in 1546 and finished around 1619. The façade This was erected in 1897 to a design by engineer Federico Berchet and architect Domenico Rupelo. They retained Sansovino's doorway, to the right of is a bocca di leone, a lion's mouth, for posting anonymous accusations of one's fellow citizens' blasphemy and general sinfulness. The interior A Greek cross plan with eight chapels in pairs at the corners. The flat ceiling is decorated with trompe l'oeil architectural perspectives by Domenico Bruni - in the middle is St Martin in glory by Jacopo Guarana. Next to the pulpit is an altar table with legs in the form of angels by Tullio Lombardo which came her from the demolished church of San Sepolcro which stood on the Riva degli Schiavone. The largest chapel is frescoed by Fabio Canal. The plush mausoleum of Doge Francesco Erizzo was evidently conceived to echo the façade of his palazzo which is visible over the canal from the door of the church. The small building attached to the right of the façade is the former Scuola di San Martino built around 1526-32 by the Guild of Ship Caulkers. It was partly rebuilt in 1584 and restored in 1772. Over the door is a 15th Century bas-relief of St Martin dividing his cloak with a poor man, an image which appears on biscuits given to children on the saint's feast day. Opening times Monday-Saturday 11.00-12.00, 5.00-6.30 Sunday 10.30-12.30 I've never found this church open, but on a recent visit it was only the inner glass doors that were closed and so I got a quick look in, at a square and darkish interior, with those strange red-curtain-fabric coverings on the columns. Vaporetto Arsenale
San Pietro di Castello Andrea Palladio/Francesco Smeraldi/Mauro Codussi (campanile) 1557-1621
Autumnal photo above by Brigitte Eckert		It used to be the cathedral of Venice. History San Pietro sits on the island of Oliviolo, which was the Easternmost part of the city, until the creation of Sant'Elena. A 7th Century church dedicated to Saints Sergio and Bacchus was replaced in the 9th Century by one dedicated to Saint Peter. It was a bishop's residence until 1451 when it became the home of the Venetian patriarch. It remained the see of the bishop of Venice up to the fall of the Republic in 1807, when it was transferred to San Marco. The church Having been much restored down the centuries, in 1556 patriarch Vincenzo Diedo commissioned Palladio with the rebuilding of the church. Diedo's death meant that Palladio's plans were not implemented (beyond a start made on the façade) until much later in the century, and were then much altered, by Smeraldi, who had previously worked with Palladio. The façade (left) is another of Palladio's temples-within-temples being a three-part façade which echoes the interior. The interior This was completed by Giangirolamo Grapiglia, with a side chapel on the left by Longhena, who also designed the somewhat overpopulated altar (1649), which was executed by Clemente Moli. This church has a big and light, and very calm and grey interior, worth the trip in itself. The remains of the first patriarch of Venice, San Lorenzo Giustiniani, are preserved in an urn supported by angels above Longhena's flamboyant high altar. In the right-hand aisle is St Peter's Throne, a carved marble throne upon which St Peter supposedly rested whilst in Antioch, containing a Muslim funerary stele and carved verses from the Koran. The art Luca Giordano and Veronese are represented, and the St Peter and four saints by Basaiti has a Bellini-like lustre. It opens out into a lovely landscape and is calmly in-keeping with the mood of church. The cloister To the right of the church is the former Patriarchal Palace, with a large gateway leading to a lovely 16th Century cloister (left) which was made into a barracks in 1807, and is now very romantically ramshackle. On a visit in early 2007 I recorded a man just singing his heart out in this cloister to an accompaniment of birdsong. Right-click here to download and listen to an mp3 of this fragrant fragment. Or the video is below. It's a bit rough, and made with just a compact still camera, but it has a certain something. The campanile Rebuilt 1482-90 by Mauro Codussi, and faced with Istrian stone, it's a chunky and memorable tower (left) and the only stone-clad campanile still standing in Venice. The original dome was replaced with a polygonal drum in 1670. This is It was described by P Barbaro in 1482 as 'powerful, isolated, crystal-white. Immobile at its base, yet in movement up there amongst the clouds. It is sculpture, caught between entrapment and flight...ready to flee with the wind.' In art The Querini Stampalia gallery has L'ingresso del patriarca a San Pietro di Castello by Gabriel Bella (1779). See it here Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00 Sundays: closed A Chorus Church Vaporetto Giardini Update: November 2007 Considerable work taking place inside, preventing access to the interior.
San Zaccaria Antonio Gambello/Mauro Codussi 15th Century
This church has a fine façade, a painting that’ll make you sit and sigh for ages, evocative fresco fragments, and a water-logged crypt. Pretty much perfection then. History The original church on this site was built by Doge Agnello Partecipazio (811-27) and dedicated to St Zacharias, the father of St John the Baptist, whose bones were sent as a gift to Venice by the Byzantine Emperor Leo V while the church was being built. The convent of Benedictine nuns next door is said to have been built at the same time. The church and convent were historically closely connected with the doge – he visited the church every Easter Monday. In the year 864 it was upon leaving the church that Doge Tradinico was set upon by conspirators and left to die. The ensuing riot meant that fearful nuns had to wait until nightfall to retrieve his body for burial. (In fact a total of three doges have been assassinated in the streets around San Zaccaria.) Much later the nuns sacrificed their orchard (for cash) to facilitate the creation of Piazza San Marco for Doge Sebastiano Ziani. This work also saw the demolition of the church San Geminiano, which was slap bang in the middle of the planned Piazza, with the orchard laying between it and the lagoon and so taking up most of the space that the Piazza was to cover. So it’s no surprise, given this connection, that the state paid for the building of the church we see today. It was also favoured with allowing the campo in front to be considered private property with gates closing its two entrances. The convent was famous for the licentiousness of its pampered high-born nuns, which might also explain those gates. The current church was built first by Gambello from 1444-65 and towards the end of this work the old church was given to the convent. Work was completed by Codussi from 1483-1504 and the church was consecrated in 1543 The church The 15th Century church you see as you enter the campo is the third church on the site. The original 9th Century basilica mentioned above was itself built over in the 10th-12th Centuries. The façade of this early gothic church is visible to the right of the current church's façade, along with the attached Benedictine convent, which was closed down by Napoleon and is now a Carabinieri barracks. The arches of the cloister to the left were built over the original convent cemetery. The monumental façade of the main church shows the transition from late gothic to renaissance, as Gambello’s lower two levels are surmounted by Codussi’s plainer upper three colonnades topped by a characteristic semicircular gable and supporting side quadrants. The interior This is Gambello’s work, with the highlight the ambulatory that curves around behind the altar with chapels radiating - a feature that is rare in Italy and unique in Venice. Red ropes prevent our access though. The grills through which the nuns from the convent next door took part in services – still to be seen in Sant’Alvise – have here long been covered by paintings. Through a door on the right are three chapels and the crypt. The first is the Chapel of St Athanasius, which was a large part of the old church, rebuilt for the nuns in the mid-15th Century and then converted into the chapel we see around 1595. A door takes you through the Cappella dell'Addolorata, with cases of relics, to the lovely Chapel of St Tarasius. This chapel was also part of the old church, reconstructed in 1440 by Gambello. Fragments of both the 9th Century and the 12th Century church’s tile floors are visible, and the chapel features some very impressive frescoes in the vaulting by Andrea del Castagno, a follower of Masaccio who brought the Tuscan renaissance to Venice when he painted these frescoes in the 1440s, almost half a decade before the renaissance took root in Venice. In this chapel you'll also find three impressive well-preserved late-gothic gilded altarpieces by Vivarini and d’Alemagna. The 10th Century colonnaded crypt below is another relic of the older church and the tombs of the doges there are usually romantically covered by water. Artistic highlight Giovanni Bellini’s Madonna and Four Saints over the second altar on the left. It was painted in 1505 when Bellini was about 74, and the same year that Albrecht Dürer on a visit to Venice described him as 'very old and still the best in painting'. It is painted as a continuation of the surrounding architecture and seems to be a glowing window into another world. Put a Euro in the slot to light the light and let yourself be transported – it just calms you right down and takes you to another place. The painting was looted by Napoleon and kept in Paris for twenty years. During this time it was transferred from panel to canvas. This scary process involves sawing away most of the wood panel from the back of the painting and then dissolving the remaining wood down to the back of the paint layer before 'gluing' the paint layer to a new canvas. Only in Paris could this have been done at the time and, it is said, this explains the painting’s fine state of preservation. But another book says that the painting used to live over the first altar and was in a sorry state, due to damage and bad restoration, before it was restored and replaced in 1971. Lost art An early Veronese Madonna and Child with saints was also taken to Paris (it had been an altarpiece in the sacristy) and later returned, but to the Accademia not San Zaccaria. The church in literature Virgins of Venice has a lot about the nuns, as does Convents and the Body Politic in Late Renaissance Venice (Women in Culture and Society Series) by Jutta Gisela Sperling. The convent is the one to which the heroine is confined in Michelle Lovric’s novel The Remedy. The church in art Francesco Guardi The Visiting Room of the Nuns at San Zaccaria. The doge's visit to San Zaccaria on Easter Monday by Gabriel Bella (right) is in the Querini Stampalia. Ruskin said Early Renaissance, and fine of its kind; a Gothic chapel attached to it is of great beauty. It contains the best John Bellini in Venice, after that of San G. Grisostomo, "The Virgin, with Four Saints;" and is said to contain another John Bellini and a Tintoret, neither of which I have seen. Opening times 10.00–12.00, 4.00-6.00 There is a small entry fee charged to visit the sacristy and the chapels and crypt beyond. Vaporetto San Zaccaria It is reportedly possible to see the two cloisters of the convent if you ask the Carabinieri nicely. There is also now usually art on sale in rooms in the ex-convent to the right of the church's entrance. The summer of 2007 saw the scaffolding covering the façade removed following cleaning, and boy does it look fine now.
San Zaninovo Matteo Lucchesi 1751-62
Campo photo by Brigitte Eckert		History The name is Venetian dialect for San Giovanni Novo. To distinguish the church from others of the same name it was called San Giovanni in Oleo - St John in Oil - because St John the Evangelist was martyred by being boiled in oil. The original church was founded in the tenth century by the Trevisan family. It acquired the name Novo when it was rebuilt in the 12th Century, to be consecrated in 1463. The church was demolished and rebuilt in 1751-62 on the same site and with the original orientation by Matteo Lucchesi (or possibly Giorgio Massari) modelled on the Redentore, although smaller and in a more cramped space. The façade is unfinished, being only built to head height. Interior The altarpiece is (was?) a painting of St John the Evangelist in a Cauldron of Boiling Oil by Francesco Maggiotto. Campanile By Matteo Lucchesi too, built in the mid-18th century. Local colour Veronica Franco was living in a house nearby when summoned by the Inquisition in 1580. Opening times Closed. Long deconsecrated, the building's last reported planned use was conversion to an art gallery. Vaporetto San Zaccaria
San Zanipolo Bartolomeo Bon/Lombardo family 14th-15th Centuries
Often compared to the Frari, but not always favourably. History This is the great church of the Dominican order, just as the Frari is the great church of the Franciscans. The sites granted to them are far from the other, and far from the political centre of Venice. The land for this church was, like that for the Frari, also presented to the order by Doge Jacopo Tiepolo. The church was finished in the 14th Century and consecrated in 1430. It too gets called a Venetian Pantheon as it has many tombs of doges. The church was not, as you might think, named after the apostles John and Paul (Giovanni and Paulo). The patron saints of this church are two obscure martyr-soldier saints with the same names. Images of these saints can be seen in the stained glass window, standing alongside St. George and St. Theodore. The church The West front’s huge unfinished brick façade contrasts with the elegance of the decorated façade of the adjoining Scuola Grande di San Marco. The gateway is by Bartolomeo Bon, with columns salvaged from a church on Torcello, and mixes classical details into its essentially gothic form. It was to be part of a remodelled façade, but the rest never happened. Notice too the lack of campanile. The interior looms impressively, cross-vaulted with wooden tie beams, like the Frari, but San Zanipolo lost its wooden choir in 1682, so seems larger. The stained glass window is one of the rare surviving examples from the period produced at Murano to designs mostly by Bartolomeo Vivarini. Art Less chock-full of crowd-pleasing gems than the Frari, Zanipolo has a Giovanni Bellini triptych, but it’s an early work lacking the glow and power of his later stuff. You’ll also find the odd St Anthony Begging by Lotto and some impressive Veronese ceiling paintings in the Chapel of the Rosary. The sequence of five tombs of doges by the Lombardos are a bigger draw especially the three for the Mocinego doges on the entrance wall. The one on the left is by Pietro and the one on the right by his elder son Tullio. The tomb in the middle is embellished by figures seemingly swiped from Pietro's. Lost art Tintoretto's Madonna and saints, with Camerlengos, now in Accademia. Veronese's Supper at the House of Levi, taken by Napoleon and returned to the Accademia. Lost graves It is said that the painter Vincenzo Catena - a talented follower/associate of Bellini and Giorgione - is buried here, but no trace or formal record has ever been found. Opening times Monday to Saturday 9.30 to 6.00 Sunday 1.00 to 6.00 Vaporetto Ospedale
Sant’Anna Bernardino Contino 1634
Photos above and right by Brigitte Eckert The original church, from Barbari's map.		History Founded with its convent in 1240. Current church dates from rebuilding of 1634 by Bernardino Contino. Church and convent suppressed by the French in 1807, the convent (ex-naval hospital?) is now an infirmary. Lost art There are five altars taken from this church now to be found in San Biagio. Vaporetto Giardini
Sant’Antonino Longhena (?) 1638-1682
A church most famous for the elephant story. History The original church was founded, it is said, in the 6th-7th Century and dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot. It was rebuilt in the 17th, to a design possibly by Longhena, although his façade was never completed. Deconsecrated in 1982. Interior A square plan, with ceiling frescos by a pupil of Ricci. The Chapel of San Saba, belonging to the Tiepolo family, featured a painting cycle of the saint's life (1593) by Palma Giovane. The saint's body was buried here, perhaps by order of Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo (1268-1272). In 1965 Pope Paul VI returned it to the monastery in Istanbul from which it had been stolen by the Venetians. Amongst funeral memorials is a bust of Procurator Alvise Tiepolo by Vittoria. Lost art The San Saba cycle by Palma Giovane, taken from the Tiepolo chapel, is now in the Diocese Museum in Sant'Apollonia. Also the Deposition by Bastiani, taken from here, is now in San Giovanni Battista in Bragora. Odd story In 1817 an elephant which broke its chains on the Riva degli Schiavoni and run amok up and down alleys, terrorising Venice for a whole day, was finally cornered after it broke into Sant'Antonin. It then made a barrier of pews using it's trunk. A falling beam trapped it, and then reports conflict as to whether it was shot in the church, or later in Piazza San Marco. A cannon was used. Byron wrote about the episode in his letters, and a local poet called Pietro Buratti used the episode to satirise the then Austrian government of Venice in an epic poem of more than 800 verses, (see cover right) making the elephant symbolic of persecuted nature. He was later imprisoned for a month for writing the poem. Vaporetto San Zaccaria		No, it's your eyes actually.
Sant’Elena Giacomo Celega 1439
		History Founded in 1175. In 1211 the body of St Helena, the mother of Constantine, was enshrined here following its swiping by Venetians from Constantinople. A papal bull of 1407 lead to the creation of monastery for Benedictine Olivetan monks and this reconstruction, by Giacomo Celega, with help from Bartolomeo Tesenato, was completed (or begun?!) in 1435. More work followed, before the church was reconsecrated in 1515. The church and monastery were suppressed by the French in 1807 and, it is said, 102 paintings were stripped out. Following use as a barracks, a bakery and an iron foundry (click here to read an article from 1883 condemning this last desecration) it was reconsecrated again, following restoration, in 1929. Only one of its original three cloisters remain but has recently undergone restoration work. Facade Sparsely Venetian-gothic, with a doorcase that stands out a bit, with a sculpture group depicting Admiral Vittore Cappello paying homage to St Helena. Interior Plain, with an aisleless vaulted nave, and recently restored. Campanile A campanile was added in 1558, but this was destroyed by the French in 1807. Following the second reconsecration of 1929 a new campanile, the current one, was built by Ferdinando Forlati, completed in 1958 and recently restored. Said to have been used as a chimney when the church was used as a foundry, but the dates for that don't add up. Opening times Monday - Saturday 5.00 -7.00 Vaporetto Sant'Elena
Sant'Isepo
History Church and convent founded in 1512 and completed in the late 16th Century, with three cloisters, which still exist. Facade A bit of a mess. Art highlights The Archangel Michael Fighting with the Devil is 'attributed to the workshop of' Jacopo Tintoretto. Over the high altar is The Adoration of the Shepherds by Veronese. Frascoes by Palma Giovane. Monuments to doges including a biggy to Doge Marino Grimani by Scamozzi. The church in art Ponte San Giuseppe di Castello Venice by John Singer Sargent (see right) Opening times 10.00 - 12.00 Vaporetto Giardini
Santa Giustina Longhena 1636-7
The church in an old photograph of uncertain date. The building seen to the left of the façade is no longer there.		History Tradition has the church founded in the 7th Century, but records date it from the 12th. It was said to incorporate the stone on which the saint knelt. The church was rebuilt in the early 17th Century at the behest of Giovanni Soranzo to commemorate is family, with a new façade by Longhena added in 1640. The Doge visited the church, and a mass was celebrated, on the saint's day (7th October) every year from 1572, to commemorate Venice's victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto on the saint's day the year before. Specially minted coins were also given to the nuns. The saint herself then began to turn up more frequently in Venetian art in celebration of the victory. The church and it convent (to the left) were suppressed in 1810, and most of the convent, and the campanile, were demolished later in the century. In 1844 the church and what remained of the convent was converted into a school for sailors. The church was split into two floors. Since 1924 it has housed the Liceo Scientifico Giambattista Benedetti. The façade The Longhena façade remains, although alterations by Giovanni Casoni when the church was converted to use as a school led to its curved pediment being chopped off and an attic installed. Busts of the Soranzo family by Clemente Moli on the sarcophagi on the façade became corroded that they were removed. Lost art A Votive picture, with Santa Giustina by Pietro Muttoni (Pietro della Vecchia) is now in the Accademia. The church in literature Goethe writes an account of the ceremonial visit of the penultimate Doge in 1786 in his Italian Journey. Vaporetto Celestia
Santa Maria dei Dereletti
History The church is called Ospedaletto (small hospital) because it was part of the smallest of the four Venetian hospitals created to care for the homeless poor, the sick and the orphaned. (It remains an old-people's home.) Founded in 1528, work on the current church, built to replace the existing small chapel, began in 1575. The original plan was by Palladio, but due to a lack of funds work progressed slowly until 1662 and a large bequest by the merchant Bartolomeo Cargnoni. This sped things up and enlarged the buildings, with Antonio Sardi and his son working on the hospice building and Longhena doing the façade of the church and the interior. Like Vivaldi's Pietà this church/hospice was famous for its accomplished female musicians. The façade Another heavy Ruskin-baiting (see below) baroque affair, with telamons (beefy pilgrims holding the church up on their shoulders), masks with donkey ears, and lots of protrusions generally. In the middle of the row of telemons is a shell with a bust of Cargnoni the benefactor. Interior Recently restored. A rectangular nave with three altars on each side, all by Longhena. The high altar is by Sardi and his son Giuseppe, with later work by Longhena. Ceiling frescoes done in 1907 by Giuseppe Cherubini. Art highlights Some good paintings of the 17th and early 18th Centuries. One by Giambattista Tiepolo (The Sacrifice of Bartholomew - an early work, painted when he was 20). In the recently restored music room of the hospice are ceiling frescoes by Jacopo Guarana. Also trompe l'oeil architectural frescoes on the walls by Antonio Mengozzi Colonna showing the hospice's girls performing, with one feeding a greyhound a doughnut. (A visit to the music room seems to involve paying 2 euros and being lead down labyrinthine corridors.) Ruskin said The most monstrous example of the Grotesque renaissance which there is in Venice; the sculptures on its façade representing masses of diseased figures and swollen fruit. It is almost worth devoting an hour to the successive examination of five buildings, as illustrative of the last degradation of the Renaissance. San Moise is the most clumsy, Santa Maria Zobenigo the most impious, St. Eustachio the most ridiculous, the Ospedaletto the most monstrous, and the head at Santa Maria Formosa the most foul. Opening times Thursday-Saturday 3.30-6.30 Vaporetto Ospedale
Santa Maria del Pianto Francesco Contino 1647-59
History The octagonal church, which faces the lagoon, and its Capuchin monastery were founded in 1649 and the church was consecrated in 1687. It was the war in Crete that encouraged the Senate to build this church to invoke the help of God against the Turks. Named for Santa Maria dei Pianto dei Sette Dolori, the Weeping Madonna of the Seven Sorrows. The church and monastery were suppressed in 1810 and the contents stripped. The monastery is now an orphanage. Opening times Closed, and hidden behind a high wall. Vaporetto Ospedale In the satellite view (right) courtesy of Google, I think that's the octagonal Santa Maria del Pianto towards the bottom right, with the patch of greenery between it and the fondamenta. The Ospedale complex is to the left.
Santa Maria della Fava Antonio Gaspari /Giorgio Massari 1705-15/1750-53
Called 'St Mary of the Bean' in honour of a sweet bean cake made by a nearby bakery on All Saint's Day. Or is it because sacks of beans were unloaded from barges nearby? History Originally a wooden chapel built in 1480 to house a miracle-working icon of the Madonna originally put on display nearby by the Amadi family. The current church was begun in 1705 by Antonio Gaspari (who put in ten years) and finished by Giorgio Massari from 1750-53, the latter responsible for the chancel with the dome, the six altars and the ceiling. The church The façade is unfinished. The tall doorcase has a large pediment featuring a shell, a symbol of the Virgin. Art highlights The nave has statues in niches (four evangelists and four saints) by Giuseppe Bernardi (known as il Torretto) who was Canova's tutor. Also a pair of angels by Morleiter either side of the high altar. The Education of the Virgin (first altar on the right) is an early Tiepolo painted whilst he was still under the influence of Piazetta, but it still glows more than Piazetta's own Virgin and Child with St Philip Neri painted five years earlier (second altar on the left). Vaporetto Rialto Opening times Mon-Sat: 8.30-11.30, 4.30-7.00
Santa Maria Formosa Mauro Codussi 1492
		The entire church is bathed in a terse, sensual light.* History Tradition has it that the Virgin Mary appeared to St Magnus, Bishop of Oderzo, in the form of a buxom (formosa in Italian) woman and told him to build her a church under a white cloud. And so this, the first church in Venice dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was built, some time in the 7th Century. It was rebuilt in the 11th Century, before the reconstruction of the almost ruined church in 1492 by Mauro Codussi. The Church The current church was planned by Codussi but the exterior was completed after his death in 1504 by unknown hands. The façade onto the rio was erected in 1542 and commemorates Vincenzo Cappello, a sea captain who, of course, defeated the Turks. The façade onto the campo was completed in 1604 and contains portraits of other members of the Cappello family. These façades were paid for by...well, you guess. The interior Codussi's interior kept the existing Greek cross plan, possibly inspired by San Marco, and also used by him into San Giovanni Grisostomo. It's a very light interior, with Brunelleschi-like dark grey architectural detailing to remind you of churches in Florence. It's a pleasing and compact space to wander around, seemingly simple but with a deceptive complexity that doesn't reveal its pleasures from any one viewpoint, having many surprise corners and crannies to explore. The art Bartolomeo Vivarini's triptych centring on the Madonna della Misericordia is the highlight. It seems to have been created for the marble frames it inhabits and Vivarini's trademark dark and brilliant colours (love that red!) shine out. Palma Vecchio takes up the red brush too - Santa Barbara is another of his beautiful and forceful blondes. She sits on an altar dedicated to the Scuola di Bombardieri (shipbuilders) for whom she is the patron saint. Vasari thought her one of Palma's best works. Campanile By Francesco Zucconi, 1678-88. On the arch at the base of the campanile is a grotesque mascherone - a carved head said to dispel evil spirits (see left) - which was much loathed by a somewhat squeamish Ruskin. Leering in bestial degradation he said, it was too foul to be either pictured or described. He then, in prose somewhat spittle-flecked even for him, goes on to claim that these faces, characteristic of the later years of the Republic, symbolised the evil spirit that lead to Venice's final decline. It's odd that a man who repeatedly argues the supremacy of the 'authentic' gothic over the 'debased' renaissance style should be so set against such grotesques. But he goes on to claim that there's true and false grotesque. Oh, and he prudishly translated formosa as beautiful. Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00 Sundays: closed A Chorus Church Vaporetto Rialto or San Zaccaria I have no idea what this means, but it sounds great doesn't it? It's a quote from a guidebook called Churches of Venice* by Alessandro Boccato.
Valdese
		Photo by Brigitte Eckert