non-catholic Valdese e Metodista
Chiesa Valdese
(Evangelical Waldesian and Methodist)
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
A nave and two
aisles and a coffered ceiling. 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 fellow fan of Venetian churches, 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-storey 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.
Another visit (5.2010) I found it, by accident - you take the Calle del Cimetro East from San
Francesco della Vigna, and there it is. I didn't feel comfortable going in
with nuns in there praying, but snuck a photo (right).
Get your Vivaldi here, ladies and gents. The Four Seasons? We got 'em
all!
History
Famous as the church of the Ospedale della Pietà, the orphanage
where Vivaldi taught and for whose talented girls he composed most of his
concerti and oratorios. The complex had been enlarged in 1388, and
modernised in 1493 and 1515. The current building dates to a rebuilding of the
chapel of the Pietà between 1745-60 on a new site. It was finished 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 had 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,
particularly for choral performance.
The
ceiling painting is The Coronation of the Virgin, one of four works
here by Tiepolo.
Opening times You might get a limited look around 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.
This one and the Emo memorial and the ceiling fresco by Francesco Boraldo
History
Originally built in 1052 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, brought about by the
previous church falling into disrepair. Closed in 1810 and reopened in
1817 as the parish church of the Navy. 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 (see photo below).Monument to
Admiral Angelo Emo, by Giovanni Ferrari, taken from the demolished church
of 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 (see photo below). There are also 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 that you'd expect, but also cap-makers, doughnut vendors and
vendors of cheap food.
San Francesco della
Vigna Jacopo Sansovino 1534/Andrea Palladio
1568-72/Pietro & Tullio Lombardo
In a quiet part of the city you stumble across a church
with a very harmonious and pleasing interior and two calm cloisters.
History This church is built where, tradition says, Saint Mark was
driven ashore by a storm on his way back from Aquileia. Here he was told by an angel that the Lagoon was to be his resting place
and that the city that shall rise on these lagoons will call you its
protector. The original
medieval church was built by Franciscans in 1253 on the site of a
chapel in a
vineyard (vigna) which marked the spot. This church can be seen now only on Barbari's
map of the city. Some sources claim that the original small chapel
survived until demolition in 1810.
Beginning 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 in the 1560s Giovanni Grimini paid for one from Palladio, which was
erected in 1568. It was his
first ecclesiastical commission and it's a fine and soaring thing (and
unusually three-dimensional for him). In the mid-1990s this façade was found to be
falling away and was reattached and restored by Venice in Peril.
The Palladian-style overhead gallery supported on columns, 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 was 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 in order 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. But elsewhere you might read that Sansovino
himself, influenced by his friend Titian, planned the church to reflect
the mystic properties of the number seven.
Art highlights
The
Giustinian chapel on the left contains a
Virgin and Child with Saints, an altarpiece that was Veronese's first piece
of work in Venice. Another Giustinian chapel (the big one left of the
chancel) 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 (and
studio) which
is very undisappointing, but the portrait of the donor (Giacomo Dolfin) was
changed later.
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).
And (further below right)
an engraving of the church by Carlevarijs.
Lost art
A relief of The Virgin and Child with God the Father (see below right) by Giovanni Buora, partner to Pietro Lombardo, is now in the
Victoria & Albert museum in London.
It was probably once in one of the Giustinian chapels.
Tintoretto's Christ Carried to the Tomb, made for the altar of the
Dal Basso family chapel, is now in National Gallery of Scotland.
A visit (May 2010) There was a service on, but the entrance to the cloisters (left of the
facade) was open so we had a solitary stroll and then a look at the
Bellini
Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor in the Capella Santa. The door
to the sacristy further down the corridor was open too, with one of those
easel thingies that explain which painting is which inside the door, so we
went in, admired a Sansovino altar and some not-great paintings, before
the priest came in and started changing out of his vestments, so we took
the hint and left. The church itself is big and tastefully plain. The nave
has two rows of five chapels, some of which are very much not plain. The
first on the left is very finely frescoed by Battista Franco (called Il
Semolei) with an Adoration of the Magi over the altar by Federico
Zuccari. The third on the left is a shiny white marble box with much
carving, and some trompe l'oeil painting in the corners by Tiepolo. The
ceiling, which looks like the work of Tiepolo too, is actually by Girolamo
Pellegrini. The fifth chapel on the left contains a (very early) Sacred
Conversation by Veronese. In the transept on the other side of the
church is the Negroponte Madonna and child - an eccentric and
lovable work full of fruit and flowers. The only real attraction amongst
the chapels on the right side is a Veronese Resurrection of Christ,
but even it's an attrib.
The church in film/TV The convent with the row of columns in front (see above)stands in for the Questura headquarters in the
German
TV adaptations of Donna Leon's Brunetti novels.
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 very photographable cloisters (above right)
amongst the oldest in Venice. A third, larger, one with only two wings is
less frequently open to visitors.
Campanile
69m (224ft) electromechanical bells The 12th Century campanile was repeatedly damaged by lightning and
then demolished in 1489.
The current tower is one of Venice's tallest, along with the Frari's
and after San Marco's, upon which it was modelled. It was designed by Bernardo Ongarin and built
between 1571 and 1581. Ongarin is buried at its base, as commemorated by
a plaque.
The old church of San Bartolomeo is visible on Barbari's
map of 1500 in the top left hand corner, beyond the
spire of the demolished church of San Domenico
What's with the clock painted onto the façade?
History In 840 a church was built on this site dedicated
to St Demetrius of Thessalonica. It was renovated in 1070 and dedicated to
St Bartholomew.
In 1291 Bartolomeo Querini, the Bishop of Castello had a hospice built
here for the elderly and the infirm also
dedicated to San Bartolomeo. This
complex was taken over by the Friars Minor (the Minim Friars) in 1580
or 1503), who converted the
hospice to a monastery eight years later and rebuilt the church in its
current form, with the
continued patronage of the Querini family. It was
consecrated on August 8th 1619. The monastery was suppressed in 1806,
became a barracks and was demolished
in 1885 to make way for the building of a school .
Interior
Remodelled in the late 18th Century, but the ceiling was left. An
aisleless nave with a barco (nun's choir stall) along the back wall with arms
stretching half way down the sides. Four small chapels on each side. Ceiling panels by Giovanni Contarini
(1603), a pupil of Titian, and commissioned by Cesare Carafa at a cost of
more than 80 gold ducats. 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.
A visit There are four shallow chapels
each side with the first ones, at the back, being under the nun's gallery.
All the good art here is at clerestory level or on the ceiling, the latter
by Giovanni Contarini, a pupil of Titian. Also not at ground level,
there's an impressive bulbous organ balcony. The inevitable painting by
Palma Giovane here depicts four female saints, but has a hole cut into it
top centre for a small somewhat primitive painting of the Madonna and
Child to be inserted. I had a short
chat with one of the two chaps chucking me out and he was able to answer
my enquiry about the other odd thing about this church, the clock painted
on the facade. He shrugged, mentioned that the church used to face another
church over a canal (San Domenico) before the canal was filled in and the
other church was demolished to make way for the public gardens, and he said
that it's because Saint Francis died at 9.30. Hmm.
In the press The church was mentioned in an article about Venice's declining
population in the UK
Guardian in March 2009. Today the cavernous interior of the church of San Francesco di
Paola, complete with a Giandomenico Tiepolo painting, draws as few as
eight worshippers to mass. "We did get 150 in for Ash Wednesday," said
priest Don Giuseppe Faustini, "and we do fill up for funerals."
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 thereby also to its eminence as a seat of Renaissance learning. The church
was financed by taxing all the Greek ships arriving in Venice. The
church
Built in a Renaissance style reminiscent of Sansovino by Sante Lombardo
from 1539 until his death in 1547, and finished by Giannantonio Chiona. 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 Baldassare 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 Sevirosis said to be the first known work by
Longhena.
A visit Firstly the courtyard around the church is rather lovely, with olive
trees and two fine well heads. The building itself is free-standing, a bit
of a rarity in Venice. Inside the church consists of an aisleless
nave with a frescoed central dome (see right). The narthex has a
ladies' gallery on top of it and there are those dark wooden stalls all around the plain
and grubby walls. But the thing is the icon screen - a gold overload all
covered in 46 icon-style paintings, to be contemplated from a fair
distance away, it has to be said. It was very enjoyable to sit in here in
peace, as the fact that this complex is accessed through a gate seemed to
keep visitor numbers low.
Campanile 44m (143 ft) manual bells
Built in 1582-92 by Simone Sorella, and leaning ever since.
Its adjoining loggia (see below) is all that remains of the Renaissance cloister.
Opening times
Monday, Wednesday – Saturday: 9.00-1.00, 3.00-5.00
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).
History
Tradition has it that the first church on this site was among the twelve churches
founded by St Magnus in the 8th Century, but the earliest written record
dates to the 9th. This later rebuilding being to house relics of St John
the Baptist. Rebuilt again in 1178 and 1475. The current Gothic church is
this late 15th Century
rebuilding. It was restored with baroque embellishments in 1728.
The church The façade is transitional: harking back to the gothic of, say, the
Frari but verging on the renaissance style of Codussi, who was said to
have been inspired by this church when designing San Michele and San
Zaccaria. The interior has a ship's-keel roof and old columns. The
architect Massari, who designed the Gesuiati church, the Palzzo Grassi,
and the Pietà where Vivaldi
famously taught, is buried here. He is also thought to have been
responsible for the redecoration of the chapel housing the remains of San
Giovanni Elemosinario here, in 1745.
Art highlights Remains of 15th Century frescoes. Cima de Conigliano's Baptism of
Christ over the high altar was his first commission in Venice. The
Virgin with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew by Bartolomeo Vivarini, and
a small painting of The Saviour Blessing by Alvise Vivarini, his
nephew. 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.
A visit (May 2010)
A nicely lofty but compact space - a nave and two aisles with a pair of
chapels in each. Unusual gilt decoration on the capitals of the pillars,
with painting over the arches too. The last pair before the altar are
square, carved and gilt pillars. This last pair were once part of a
decorative screen, the work of Sebastiano Mariani da Lugano, which was
dismantled in the late 16th Century, with some panels used to line the
chancel. The apse is a bit of a surprising burst of rococco, with
the altarpiece an impressive Baptism of Christ by Cima de
Conigliano. And there's even quite a likeable Palma il Giovanne on the
left-hand side of the chancel, of The washing of the feet, which
has a touch of the Tintorettos to it. This is the church where Vivaldi was
baptised, in 1678 (two months after he was born, as he was sickly and
thought likely to die) and so the font is swamped with wreaths of flowers,
mostly blue, or some reason and one in the shape of an oversized violin (see
left). The sprightly Vivaldi concertos playing loudly through speakers
(as if my bank had put me on hold again) I could have done without - did
they not have any CDs of his church music? Leaving the church by its
side entrance takes you into a sweet little tucked-away campo.
It's
called the Campiello del Piovan, and Giorgio Massari was born at No 3752.
Campanile
The original one can be seen on Matthaeus Merian's map of 1635 (right) but
was demolished in 1826 (or 1728?) and replaced with the current belfry.
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 in 1312 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. The Commenda di Malta, part of this complex, was where the works
of art stripped from churches etc. at this time where stored pending a
decision as to their fate. The church was repossessed and reopened by the Knights of Jerusalem in 1839
using altars and sculpture from other suppressed churches.
The interior An aisle-less nave, with 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 Hardly ever.
But click
here for photos of a visite exceptionnelle, by someone else.
map
San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti Vincenzo Scamozzi/Antonio
Sardi/Francesco Contin 1601-31
Photo by Brigitte Eckert
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 through doorways
to 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, but who died in battle in 1654. The church itself
is an aisle-less nave designed for both services and music recitals, with
choir galleries. It 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. Like the Pieta it took in abandoned girls who studied music and
were trained to sing and play. There is still the 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.
Campanile 32m (104ft) no bells
Dating from 1601 too. Plain with a sundial on the south-facing side.
The church in art
It peeks in at the left-hand edge of Canaletto's Rio dei Mendicanti: Looking
South. Also, from the other direction, A view of the Rio dei Mendicanti
by Guardi has the façade in the centre..
Canaletto is buried here, allegedly.
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 X, a supporter of the independence of Venice's churches. Early in the 16th Century
the church was rebuilt by Pietro Lombardo and his son. Reconsecrated in 1619,
with the campanile demolished mid-century. 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 work 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 very chapel and was baptised in this church. He lived in a
house facing onto the nearby Corte Perini.
Art highlights Works by Giandomenico Tiepolo, including ceiling frescoes, an
altarpiece by Palma Giovane, and a late and damaged, but still
impressive, Titian painting of the
Apostle James. The Crucifixion by Pietro Muttoni, also known as Pietro della
Vecchia for his emulation of the painting styles of his elders (and
betters) which bordered on outright forgery. This painting is described as
his best work but also as being more than a little disturbing.
A visit
It's a surprisingly plush and interesting little church, aisleless with
four unsimple side altars, one with a Titian that's not in the best of
states. The chapel to the right of the apse is the work of the Lombardo
brothers - the overall design is by Pietro and the pieta panel by Tullio.
It's also said that the chapel contains the tomb of Canaletto. The ceiling
fresco of The Apotheosis of St Leo in Glory and the Exhaltation of the
Cross is by Giandomenico Tiepolo. A modestly impressive church, then,
quietly hiding some big names and well worth a visit, I say. The attendant
was chummy and very helpful too, and so I even asked respectfully if I
could take photos and when he said no I accepted it. Even though he left
with me and went into a local café getting money out of his pocket...but
no, I was good and didn't take advantage.
Campanile
Can be seen on the De Barbari map, probably dating from the 1054
building. Only the lower section still remains, in the campo to the left
of the entrance. Probably truncated in 1783.
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. It
depicts an event in the early fifteenth century when a holy relic would
not allow itself to be carried at the funeral of a doubting man, becoming
too heavy to carry. The church's façade (presumably the pre-Lombardo
version) is to the right in the painting. There's also a drawing,
tentatively attributed to Gentile Bellini, who taught Manseti, from around
the same time. It shows a bit more of the façade and campanile base (see
detail below right) and is the earliest surviving topographical drawing
of Venice.
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. Rebuilt several times, the current church dates
from a complete rebuilding by Sorella in 1592-1602. But the façade was
never even started. Marco Polo had been buried
here, but his sarcophagus was lost during the rebuilding.
Suppressed, along with the convent, in 1810 with its art works dispersed.
Some of the convent buildings in front of the church were demolished soon
after. In 1842 the complex passed to Dominicans, but in 1865 was returned
to the city council. The church was
badly damaged in World War 1, but restored in the 1950s (see the black and
white photos, taken in March 1955 below left). The convent
buildings were
later converted into a hospital, but have now been made into sheltered
housing. The church has now been undergoing
restoration for ever.
Interior
Reportedly a huge single space divided in half by a large three-bay screen
with much decorative ironwork. One half was for the public and the other
for the nuns. Each half had it own organ.
Quotes In Dressed for Death
by Donna Leon 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.”
The church in art The Clothing Ceremony of a Nun at San Lorenzo, a 1789
painting by Gabriel Bella shows the interior of the church. This painting
is in the
Querini
Stampalia.
Opening times
None
Vaporetto San Zaccaria
The campo is also home to a Dingo cat sanctuary.
Read more about this (with photos) on the
Venice and
Cats page on my other website.
History
Named for St Martin of Tours, this church is traditionally said to have been founded in
650, but more
reliable sources say 1026, with rebuilding in 1161. The
current church dating from a rebuilding in 1546, funded by Antonio Contarini, to a design by Sansovino begun
in 1553, which was finished around 1619,
with consecration following in 1653.
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 which is a bocca di leone, a lion's mouth, for posting anonymous
accusations of one's fellow citizens' 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 (see below right) which came here from the suppressed and demolished church of San Sepolcro which stood on the Riva degli Schiavone.
In the late 1960s the angels were in a poor state, following the 1966
floods, and so were removed and restored by Venice in Peril. The largest
chapel is frescoed by Fabio Canal. The tomb of Doge Francesco Erizzo over
the side door was evidently conceived to echo the façade of his palazzo,
which is visible over the canal through this door.
A visit
This church is Greek-cross shaped with pairs of chapels at each corner and
it gives the impression of greater width than depth. There's a large
ceiling fresco with surrounding trompe l'oeil architectural detailing
imitating the actual walls. Some attractive monochrome wall painting too.
I liked this church a lot. The left-hand chapel near the front has signs
pointing to a sacristy leading you through open doors, which I took as an
invitation. The sacristy itself can best be described as a 'working'
sacristy (i.e. a bit of a mess) but has an interesting fresco covering the
ceiling with regular stripes of missing paint, looking just like it was
painted between the beams which were later removed. But that seems
unlikely. Anyway maybe you better not go and look as I was politely
ejected after a minute by a chap who did not take my point about the signs
looking like they were meant to be followed. And that the box by the door
inviting donations from visitors to the sacristy...well, you see my point?
(The leaflet provided by the church also guides you to the sacristy, but
doesn't mention the ceiling.) The altar by Tullio Lombardo (right) is another draw, even if it is hidden in a
dark corner.
The scuola 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 (right) 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.
Campanile 22m (72ft) electromechanical bells
Romanesque and dating from the Sansovino rebuilding. Restored in 1902 and
1973.
Opening times Monday-Saturday 11.00-12.00, 5.00-6.30
Sunday 10.30-12.30
San Pietro di Castello Andrea Palladio/Francesco Smeraldi/Mauro
Codussi (campanile) 1557-1621
Photo above by Brigitte Eckert
It used to be the cathedral of Venice.
History
San Pietro sits on the island of Olivolo which was the Easternmost part
of the city until the creation of Sant'Elena. A church
of 650, one of the 12 established by St Magnus, was dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus,
but was replaced and enlarged from 774 to 841 with
one dedicated to Saint Peter. It was a bishop's residence until 1451 when
it became the home of the Venetian patriarch.
Restored 1120 and 1506-1522 then, in 1556, patriarch Vincenzo Diedo commissioned
Palladio with its rebuilding. Diedo's death meant that Palladio's plans
were not implemented (beyond a start made on the façade) until much
later in the century, after Palladio's death, and they were then much
altered by Francesco 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. It was finished by Girolamo Grapiglia,
another close follower of Paladio, in 1621. The church remained the see of the
bishop of Venice up to the fall of the Republic in 1807, when this
function was
transferred to San Marco.
The interior
A Latin cross, with a three-bay nave flanked by aisles each with three
altars.
This too was completed by Girolamo Grapiglia, with the Vendramin Chapel on the
left by Longhena who also designed the somewhat overpopulated high 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, Pellegrini 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.
A visit
The church had been closed for a while, for restoration, and so it's been
ages since I've been inside. It's a lot more likeable and light than I
remember. It's three naves wide, lofty, with a large dome. It's full of
middling 18th Century art and dominated by a somewhat
overpopulated altar by Longhena, which is topped with the remains and
statue of San Lorenzo Giustiniani. The Lando Chapel is a pleasant little space, the only
survival from the earlier gothic church, with a mosaic altarpiece based on
a Tintoretto cartoon. There's also a Veronese over the door. There's an
odd Basaiti of five saints that seems pasted into a too-large frame (over
the third altar on the right) with some mock stone work painted in to fill
the gap. I sense a story here.
The cloister
To the right of the church is the former Patriarchal Palace, with a large
gateway leading to a lovely 16th Century cloister (see left) which was
made into a barracks in 1807 and is now social housing and 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.
Click here to 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
54m (175ft) manual bells Detached, standing in the campo in front of the church, one of the few
campi in Venice which is still grassed over. Erected in 774, it collapsed in 1120 in a fire, was rebuilt, but
destroyed again in a storm in 1442. Rebuilt 1463-64, but damaged by
lightening in 1482.Rebuilt 1482-90 by Mauro Codussi, and faced with Istrian stone, it's a
chunky and memorable tower (left) andthe only stone-clad
campanile still standing in Venice. The original dome was blown off in
1659 and replaced with a
polygonal drum in 1670. 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.' Restored in 1884, 1902 and 2000, it still leans
to the East.
The church in art The Querini Stampalia gallery has L'ingresso del patriarca a San
Pietro di Castello by Gabriel Bella (1779). See it
here
The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin has Canaletto's The Vigilia di San Pietro.
Leaning Tower of San Pietro, Venice, an oil painting by Félix Ziem
done in the late 19th Century, shows the campanile leaning at a somewhat
astonishing angle.
Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00
Sundays: closed
A Chorus
Church
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 said to be 7th Century and to have
been founded by St Magnus. One was
certainly built by Doge Agnello Partecipazio
(811-27). It was 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. On 13th September 864, after
attending vespers at the church, Doge Pietro Tradinico was set upon by conspirators
at the entrance to Campo San Zaccaria 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.)
Later the nuns sacrificed their orchard (for cash) to facilitate the
creation of Piazza San Marco by Doge Sebastiano Ziani. This work also saw
the demolition of the church of San Geminiano, which was slap bang in the
middle of the planned Piazza, with the nun's 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 and high-born nuns, which might also explain those gates.
The 9th Century church burnt down in the fire of 1105, with a hundred nuns
suffocated too.
The current church was built first by Gambello from 1444-65 and towards
the end of this work the old church to the south 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 16th Century cloister to the left
(possibly by Codussi and now walled up) was
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 common
in France, rare in
Italy and unique in Venice. But red ropes usually prevent access. The
nave is short, and here the grills through which the nuns from the convent next door took part in
services – still to be seen in Sant’Alvise – have 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 the chancel 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
finally took root in Venice. In this chapel you'll also find three
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. This was 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,
before being returned in 1817.
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 in
1971. To fit into its current altar the painting had a strip cut from
bottom, so losing three rows of tiles and no little painted depth. Some
sources claim that these losses occurred during the painting's time in
Paris.
Campanile 24m (78ft) manual bells
The first tower was demolished in the 11th Century, and rebuilt in the
12th with recycled material from the first. It's pyramid-shaped spire is
visible in De Barbari's map (right). The spire and belfry
collapsed in 1510 and the tower was rebuilt in its current form.
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 and not San Zaccaria.
The church in literature
Mary Laven's
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
byGabriel 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
Daily
10.00–12.00, 4.00-6.00
There is a small entry fee charged to visit the sacristy and the (unmissable) chapels
and crypt beyond.
Cloister access
It is reportedly possible to see the two cloisters of the convent if you
ask the Carabinieri nicely. There is also often art on sale in rooms
in the ex-convent behind the garden to the right of the church's entrance.
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 968
by the Trevisan family. It acquired the name Novo when it was rebuilt in
the 12th Century, to be reconsecrated in 1463. The church was demolished and
rebuilt in 1751-62, on the same site and with the original orientation, to
a design by Matteo Lucchesi, modelled on the Redentore,
although smaller and in a more cramped space. Thefaçade is unfinished, being only built to head height.
Interior A single nave with a square chancel and a barrel-vaulted ceiling and a
pair of altars on each side.The altarpiece is (was?) a painting of St John the Evangelist in a
Cauldron of Boiling Oil by Francesco Maggiotto.
Campanile
De Barbari's map (and the map of 1635 right) has an impressive
tall structure with an octagonal drum and a spire. This tower was
demolished in 1762 and replaced with a Roman-style campanile, by Matteo Lucchesi too.
Local colour Famed courtesan and poet 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
to be converted to an art gallery.
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 which were 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 first church was finished late in the 13th Century
but was soon found to be too small. Reconstruction work on a much larger
church began in the early 14th Century. This building was consecrated in
1430, with Bon's portal added in 1458-62. Like the Frari it also gets called 'a Venetian
Pantheon' as it has twenty-five
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 of the same names. Images
of these saints can be seen in the stained glass window, standing
alongside Saint George and Saint Theodore, two of Venice's three patron
saints.
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.
A visit
The interior looms impressively, cross-vaulted
with wooden tie beams, like the Frari, but San Zanipolo lost its wooden
choir in 1682 and 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.
Less chock-full of crowd-pleasing gems than the Frari, San Zanipolo has a
Giovanni Bellini
polyptych, but it’s an early work
lacking the glow and calm 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 stolen from Pietro's.
Lost art Veronese's Supper at the House of Leviwas
taken by Napoleon and later returned to the Accademia.Tintoretto's Madonna and
Saints, with Camerlengos, is now also in the Accademia.
A Bellini altarpiece, The Virgin and Child with Saints (which was
in poor condition but was said to be an early masterpiece), Titian's Peter Martyr and Tintoretto's
Crucifixion were destroyed in a fire here on August 16th 1867 (see
photo right).
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.
The church in art Many views by the likes of Guardi, Bellotto and Canaletto. Also a
watercolour by Sargent which is also from the classic viewpoint. David Roberts
did a watercolour of the interior.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday 9.30 to 6.00
Sunday 1.00 to 6.00
After the fire in the Capella del Rosario
in 1867, photo by Carlo Naya.
Sant’Anna Francesco Contino
1634-5
Interior photo by Brigitte Eckert
History
The church was founded with its convent in 1242 by
Augustinians who dedicated the church to St Anne and St Catherine.
Passed on to Bendictines in 1297 who took up residence in 1305 and
then back to Augustinian nuns in the early 16th Century. The current church dates from a
rebuilding of 1634-59 by Francesco Contarini after which it was
consecrated and dedicated to St Anne. The Benedictine
convent was prosecuted for carnal acts in 1491 and 1608. Arcangela
Tarabotti lived here in the early 17th Century, she being the author
of a number of books, including Paternal Tyranny, which
protested at the then-common incarceration of young women with no
vocation purely for financial reasons.
During the plague of 1630-31 workers from the Arsenale made a
substantial donation to the convent of Sant'Anna, paying for the
chapel to the right of the main altar in the church, containing a
painting of Christ, the Virgin and Saints Rocco, Anna, Sebastiano
and Lorenzo by Lorenzetti. Church and
convent were both suppressed by the French in 1807, with the nuns
moved to San Lorenzo.
After suppression the
convent (which stretches along the canal to the left from the back
of the church) became a college for naval cadets, then a barracks in 1850
(with the church used as a gymnasium) and a hospital in 1867, but was always run by the navy. They gave up the
building in 1986. The site is now blocks of flats, with a few
remaining columns and such kept from the original convent used in
the construction of the
blocks backing onto the canal.
Now owned by the local authority and long-awaiting money for restoration and structural repairs.
In November 2008, 55 square
meters of the church's decorated ceiling collapsed. It
is currently (September 2009) being used merely to store the lumber
and rubble created by the nearby building work (see photo below
left).
Lost art
There are five altars taken from this church now to be found in San
Biagio.
History
The original church was founded, it is
said, in the early 7th Century by the Badoer family and dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot.
The pig being the emblem of this saint, the monks at the attached
monastery kept a herd
of pigs that were allowed to wander so unchecked that a
sumptuary edict was passed in 1409 to limit their unruly rootlings. The
church was rebuilt from 1668 (reconsecrated 1680) to a design possibly by Longhena,
although his façade was never completed. Deconsecrated and closed 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 and with stucco
decoration possibly by Vittoria. The saint's body
was buried here, perhaps by order of Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo
(1268-1272). In 1965 Pope Paul VI returned the body 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.
Art highlights
In his Companion Guide to Venice Hugh Honour says that
there's 'a fantastic Sacrifice of Noah by Pietro della
Vecchia (right of the high altar)'. This artist (also known as
Pietro Muttoni) was called della Vecchia for his emulation of the
painting styles of his elders (and betters) which bordered on
outright forgery.
Lost art The San Saba cycle by Palma Giovane, painted in 1593 for the
Tiepolo chapel here, 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. The Saints John and Luke by
Giambattista Tiepolo painted for this church is now lost.
Campanile 32m (104 ft) electromechanical bells
Struck by lightning in 1442 and rebuilt in the 18th Century with an
octagonal drum and onion dome.
Odd story
In 1817 an elephant broke its chains on the Riva degli Schiavoni and
ran amok up and down alleys, terrorising Venice for a whole day. It
was finally cornered after it broke into Sant'Antonin and
made a barrier of pews using its trunk. A falling beam
trapped it, following which - here reports conflict - it was either 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, making the elephant a symbol of persecuted nature.He
was later imprisoned for a month for writing the poem.
Opening times Update June 2010 - earlier this month Sant'Antonin reopened, after being closed for 28 years. Will
investigate, and look for opening times, on my next visit in
September.
Update September 2010
I did - it was still shut.
Vaporetto San Zaccaria
History
Some say that the first record of a church here dates to 1060,
others that the church was founded in 1175. In 1211 the body of St Helena, the mother of
Emperor Constantine, was enshrined here following its theft by Venetians
from Constantinople. A papal bull of 1407 lead to the creation of
a 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) the church was restored in 1915, at the
same time as local land reclamation work. It was reconsecrated again,
after more work, 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. This group spent some time in the late
19th/early 20th Centuries on the façade of the church of Sant’Aponal
in the sestiere of San Polo. It has been attributed to Antonio Rizzo
and to Niccolò Fiorentino
Interior
Plain, with an aisleless vaulted nave, and recently restored, with a
modern timber roof.
Lost art Some paintings in the Accademia, including the Saint Helen
Polyptych by Michele di Matteo, which was sited on the main
altar in the chapel of Sant'Elena. The wooden choir with 34 panels
depicting Venice is now lost. A Palma Vecchio altarpiece,
commissioned by the Malpiero family, is now in the Brera, Milan.
Campanile 52m (169ft) electromechanical
bells 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. It was
completed in 1958 (making it Venice's newest campanile) and recently restored. It is 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.
History
The church was built in 1512. Augustinian nuns were then brought from San
Giuseppe in Verona to found a convent. Money was short, due to the drain
of the war against the League of Cambrai, and so work was not completed
until late in the 16th Century. In 1801 the Augustinian nuns were
replaced by Silesians. Three cloisters still exist and are home to the
Sebastiano Venier Nautical Institute. Church and convent were saved from demolition
during the Napoleonic era by
the intervention of Beauharnais.
Facade
A bit of a mess, stylistically. The relief over the door, paid for by the
Grimini family, is The Adoration of the
Magi, attributed to Giulio dal Moro.
Interior
Aisle-less nave with a flat ceiling, frescoed by Pietro Ricchi and Antonio
Torri. A barco (nun's gallery) connects to the adjacent convent.
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 Alessandro Veronese. Frescoes by Palma
Giovane.
Monuments to doges including a biggy to Doge Marino Grimani designed by
Vincenzo Scamozzi with figures and reliefs by Bartolomeo Campagna (see
below right). The church is something of Grimini family pantheon, with
Girolamo Grimini also paying for the main chapel and the above-mentioned relief by Moro over the door.
The church in art Ponte di San Giuseppe di Castello, Venice byJohn Singer
Sargent (see below).
Campo San Giuseppe di Castello by Canaletto (see further below)
has Sant'Isepo in the background and the church of San Nicolò di Bari in
the foreground. This latter church was later demolished to make way for
the public gardens.
Opening times
10.00 - 12.00
Update June 2011: Exterior totally covered in scaffolding.
The church in a photograph taken in 1929.
The building seen to the left of the façade was demolished
later in the building of the
Istituto Paolo Sarpi, work on
which can be seen beginning further up the canal.
History
Tradition says that this church was one of the 12 founded by St
Magnus 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 1514, and, at
the behest of Giovanni Soranzo to commemorate his family, a new façade by Longhena
was added in 1640.
The Doge visited the church,
and a mass was celebrated, on the saint's day (7th October) every
year from 1572. This was 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 also then
began to turn up more frequently in Venetian art in celebration of
the victory.
The church
and its convent (to the left) were suppressed in 1810 and most of
the convent, and the campanile, were demolished later in the
century. The church's Baroque high altar ended up in Sant'Aponal. 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 for use as a school led to its curved
pediment (see print below left) being chopped off and an attic installed. Busts of the Soranzo family by Clemente Moli on the sarcophagi on the façade
became so 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 high altar, with its painting
The Martyrdom of Sant'Apollinare by Lattanzio Querena, taken from here
was installed in the church of Sant'Aponal
when the latter church was reconsecrated and reopened in 1851.
One of the saints from the upper tier of a polyptych by Marco Zoppo
that was here, A Bishop Saint, perhaps Saint Augustine, is
now in the National Gallery in London. Another, Saint Paul,
is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
The church in literature
Goethe writes an account of the ceremonial visit here of the penultimate
Doge in 1786 in his Italian Journey.
Vaporetto
Celestia
Opening times Still being used as a school, maybe even merely for
storage.
History
A
church and hospital (called the Hospice of St. Peter and St. Paul) were built here at the beginning of the
11th Century to shelter pilgrims. Then it was occupied by an order of
Franciscan nuns, who all died in the plague of 1630, except for Domenica Rossi.
The complex later became a hospital and hostel for
the poor. The church, originally dedicated to San Gioacchino, was renovated between 1648 and 1736.
Contains an 18th century altar with high-relief carving of The
Last Supper. Was also once known for a wooden crucifix, now no
longer to be seen in the church. Suppressed in 1807.
Considerable restoration to the whole complex between October 1996
and January 1999. The hospital was taken over by the Maria
Ausiliatrice Institute and is now a student residence, with the
church used for exhibitions, especially during the Biennale.
Ausiliatrice translates literally as female helper, or protectress,
but I read that it means Helper of Christians.
Vaporetto Giardini
Opening times
Often used for art exhibitions, especially at Biennale times.
The church of San Gioacchin, the church's previous name, is
to the top right in the above map.
It's on the a canal that was later filled in to make the Via Garibaldi.
Santa Maria dei
Dereletti
Longhena 1670-72
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,
before they were dismissed after two years due to a dispute. Longhena
took over - the façade of the church and the interior are his work.
Like Vivaldi's Pietà this church/hospice was famous for its
accomplished female musicians. The complex bacame an old-people's
home in 1807 and is now owned by IRE (a public
body running homes for the elderly and single mothers) whose offices
are next door.
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 telamons is a shell with a bust of Cargnoni the
benefactor.
Interior
A single aisle-less space with a flat roof. Recently restored. 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.
History The octagonal church, which faces the lagoon, and its Capuchin
monastery were founded in 1649 and the church was consecrated in 1687.
Mother Maria Benedetta de Rossi had had a vision, and Doge Francesco da
Molin and the senate approved the building, hoping to invoke divine
assistance in the war in Crete. The architect was Francesco Contino, who
may have been inspired by the octagonal shape of the, then new,
Salute church. This church is named for Santa Maria dei Pianto
dei Sette Dolori, the Weeping Madonna of the Seven Sorrows. The complex
was suppressed in 1810 and the contents stripped. The monastery was bought
in 1814 by Abbott Martiis for use as a boys school, with a girls school
added later. The church has been variously used as a barracks and for
maritime storage, but it was reconsecrated in 1851. The complex is now
owned by the hospital who have allowed the church and its campanile to
fall into sad ruin. The octagonal interior originally housed seven altars,
of which three are said to remain.
Lost organ
Following the church's suppression in 1810 a Nacchini organ was acquired
from here by the church on the island of San
Servolo.
Opening times Closed, and hidden behind a high wall.
Santa Maria della Fava
Antonio Gaspari /Giorgio
Massari 1705-15/1750-53
Called 'St Mary of the Bean' in honour of a sweet bean (or bean-shaped) 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 which had originally been put on display nearby by the Amadi family.
(it's still to be found in the church, over the second altar on the
right.) The church was originally called Santa Maria della Consolazione.
In 1662 it passed to the Oratorians, an order founded by Saint Philip Neri.
In 1701 the order got permission from the Doge to restore and enlarge the
church. Work began in 1705 to a design by Antonio Gaspari. Work was
interrupted in 1715.
The side altars were built in 1725, possibly to designs by Domenico Rossi. Building to
designs by Giorgio Massari's followed from 1750-53.
He was
responsible for the chancel with the dome, the altars and the ceiling and
largely followed Gaspari's intentions. On
June 16th 1912 the church and oratory passed to the Redemptorist Fathers.
The church
The façade is unfinished. The tall door case 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. The
reliefs above - Episodes from the life of Saint Philip Neri - are
also probably by Torretto. 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).
Piazetta is buried in this church, in the tomb of the printer Albrizzi, in
front of the third altar on the right.
Art theft Tiepolo's Education of the Virgin was stolen on the night of
14th December 1993. The thieves, who had stolen another painting from the
church the week before, hid inside a confessional until the church closed.
They lit some votive candles for light, used a stepladder that was in the
church to get the painting down and tried to cut the canvas out. Their
knife wasn't up to it so they adjourned to a local bar and had a meal.
They returned to the church where they smoked a couple of joints, cut out
the canvas and left. They hid the painting, intending to cut it into four
and sell the bits separately, in a farmhouse near Marco Polo Airport, but
it was found intact three months later.
The church in art
The hard-to-see dome at the back of the church is just visible in a sketch that Canaletto made from the window of his house in nearby Corte Perini (see
right)
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 by the Tribuno family. It was rebuilt in the 11th Century.
It was rebuilt again in 1492 by
Mauro Codussi who kept to the dimensions of the foundations of the
(by then almost ruined) 11th Century church.
The church was visited by the doge and a procession of twelve young
girls every 2nd of
February. This procession of 'Marias' was to commemorate the rescue of the brides abducted by pirates
from Istria and Trieste from San Pietro di Castello some time in 944.
Santa Maria Formosa being the centre for the guild of casselleri (casemakers)
who carried out the rescue and requested an annual visit from the
doge in reward.
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 defeated the Turks. The façade onto the
campo (maybe by Smeraldi) was completed in 1604 and contains portraits of other members
of the Cappello family. These façades were paid for by...well, you
guess. They were restored by Venice in Peril in the mid-90s. The
interior was renovated by merchant Torrino Tononi in 1689. The dome
was repaired in 1668 after an earthquake and in 1921 following a hit
during Austrian bombing in 1916.
A visit (September 2010)
Codussi's interior kept the existing Greek cross plan (possibly
inspired by San Marco) also used by him in San Giovanni Grisostomo.
It's a pleasingly cubey space with the sparse and grey feeling of
the Brunelleschis about it. The altar is topped with an impressive
triumphal arch (see left). One enters through a side door
now, as a person selling tickets for concerts of Vivaldi's flipping
Four Seasons sits in the main entrance, with his CD player
blaring baroquely. So the art starts unimpressively as you
circulate, but as you pass the main door there's a small tondo of
Christ being circumcised by Catena, who's an artist we're always
happy to see something by, his works being rare. This one is
labelled attrib. but beggars get few choices. This is quickly
followed by a triptych by Bartolomeo Vivarini. The central panel of the Virgin is
flanked on the left by a painting of her parents, Anne and Joachim,
who are about to embrace and kiss, which was how she was conceived
evidently. Much less messy than the usual way. Then there's the
Santa Barbara polyptych, by Palma Vecchio, and a fine and
forceful looking woman he makes her too. On the altar below is a
carved relief showing her lying on the ground with her head
unattached, because she's just been decapitated by her father, who's
shown running off but is about to be struck by arrow-headed
divine lightning.
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 40m (130ft) electromechanical bells
De Barbari's map shows a squat brick tower with a sugar-loaf spire
surrounded by four pinnacles. This was replaced with the current
campanile, designed by Francesco Zucconi, a priest, in 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, too foul to be either pictured or described, or to be
beheld for more than an instant. 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 seems odd to me 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 a difference between true and false grotesque. Oh, and he prudishly
translated the word formosa as
beautiful. And the carved head is said to actually represent
someone suffering from fibromatosis or von Recklinghausen's disease.
The church in art The Campo Santa Maria Formosa by Canaletto in 1733-4.
Reproduced by Bellotto around 1742. Also an oil painting by Sickert,
and an etching by one D.S. MacLaughlan (see left).
The church in literature Santa Maria Formosa plays an important, if sparsely painted,
part in Muriel Spark's novel Territorial Rights. The
adjective frequently used in the book to describe the church is
'bulbous'.
Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00
Sundays: closed
A Chorus
Church
The
church
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.
