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Angelo
Raffaele
Francesco Contino 1618-1639
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The 'Miss
Garnet's Angel' church.
History
Tradition has it that this church, dedicated to the Archangel Raphael,
is one of the oldest in Venice, supposedly having been founded in 640. The
story goes that when Attila attcked Italy for the second time Genusio,
Lord of Padua, sent his family to the island of Rialto. When his wife,
Adriana, arrived in Dorsoduro she vowed to build a church if her husband
retuned safely. She built an oratory where the Bendictine nuns from San
Zaccaria, whom she had befriended, could visit and worship. Adriana left
the oratory to the nuns, whop kept it up until it was destroyed by a fire
which swept the whole district in 899. The church was rebuilt by the
Candini and Ariana families. It became a parish church, which was
destroyed by fire in 1105. The first written record dates from 1193, the
year in which the church was rebuilt and reconsecrated following the fire.
This church was itself demolished in the 17th Century being considered to
be beyond repair.
The Church
The current church was built in 1618 to designs by
Francesco Contino. The façade, facing onto a narrow canal, was rebuilt in
1735, with its
statue group of Tobias, Raphael, the dog and the fish (left)
dating from this time too, and said to be by Sebastiano da Lugana.
The
restoration of the façade in 2004 left it looking like new but lacking,
some complained, that certain crumbling charm and the aged look that it
possessed before (right).
But the pristine look didn't last, of course, this being Venice.
This is one of only two churches in Venice that are free standing - you can
walk all around it.
Interior
The original Greek cross interior was reworked in the 18th Century.
Art highlights
The organ over the entrance (built 1743-49 by Antonio and Tommaso Amigoni) has
a balcony divided into five sections, each featuring paintings of the life
of Tobias by Giovanni Antonio Guardi, brother of the more famous veduti-painter
Francesco, in 1750-53.
The baptistery (entrance to the right of the high altar) is a tiny low room,
the whole ceiling of which is covered with a fresco by Francesco Fontebasso,
a pupil of Ricci and Tiepolo. It's been much altered, but recent cleaning
has left it bright and glowing.
Campanile 35m (114 ft) electromechanical bells
Rebuilt with the 18th Century's favoured form of the octagonal drum and
onion dome.
Literature
This church is central to the action in Salley Vickers' novel Miss
Garnet's Angel and so it has become something of a pilgrimage destination
for readers of that book. This probably explains the much better chance
that
you'll find it open lately and its recent spate of sprucings-up. So who
are we to quibble.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday 8.00-12.00, 3.00-5.00
Sunday 9.00-12 .00
Vaporetto San Basilio
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Carmini
early 16th Century
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History
Founded by the Carmelite fathers in 1286 and consecrated in 1348.
Rebuilt with a new façade facing the canal in the early 16th Century.
The church
The brick façade facing the square and the canal is early Venetian
Renaissance and influenced by the work of Codussi. The façade is probably
by Sebastiano Mariano di Lugano, as are the statues, probably. The statues are, from
the top, the redeemer, the annunciation and the prophets Elijia and Elisha.
The last two are considered the founders of the Carmelite order. The side
entrance on Calle de la Scuola (see below left) is the original
14th Century façade and features Byzantine palm-leaf detailing - it was
restored in 2006 by Venice in Peril.
Interior
Dates from the original 14th Century Gothic building, but most of the decoration is
later. Vast but lacking a transept, it's somewhat dark and baroque in
effect due to the 17th Century art and the gilded woodwork. Some
especially fine confectionary stucco work on the altar with a frescoed
ceiling depicting Two angels in flight by Sebastiano Ricci. The
sacristy you shouldn't miss, for its 15th Century fresco fragments. But as
this is what you might politely call a working sacristy you might have to
tune out the business going on like, in my case, the conversation of the
priest and the disreputable-looking man replenishing the candles, and also
ignore the presence of the floor cleaning equipment.
Cloisters
The cloister of the former monastery (see below), which was rebuilt in the mid-17th Century
and suppressed in 1810,
has an entrance to the right of the façade and can be visited, despite
the fact that it looks like you can't. The wellhead in the centre is dated
1762 and has the Carmelite crest. The presence of assorted bits of old
board and some shouting youths (cunningly excluded from the photo) made for a certain lack of atmosphere on my
visit.
Campanile 66m (217 ft) electromechanical bells
The 1290 original is visible on Barbari map. It was damaged by earthquakes
in 1347, 1410 and 1511. Demolished 1511 and rebuilt taller in 1520. This
one began to lean as the foundations subsided and was straightened in 1688 by Giuseppe Sardi.
The method by which he achieved the straightening involved digging away at
the brickwork on the three sides away from the tilt and wedging wood into
the holes. He then dissolved the wood away with strong acid and the tower
tilted back. At this time the campanile was also topped by a small octagonal temple with
a bronze statue of the Madonna of Mount Carmel. The current statue is actually a
copy sculpted in 1982 by Romano Vio after the original was struck by
lightning. When the lightning struck the campanile, in 1756, the monks
ringing the bells at the time were so terrified they fled in panic and one
of them hit his head against a wall and died.
The church in art
Santa Maria del Carmelo and Scuola Grande dei Carmini, a
typically cropped oil painting by John
Singer Sargent (below left) shows the façade stuccoed over.
Sickert's The Church of the Carmine is from a viewpoint just a
little to the left of mine for the photo above, and merely trims off the
top of the façade.
Opening times 12.30-7.00
Vaporetto Ca' Rezzonico or San Basilio

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Le Eremite
Giovanni Battista
Lambranzini 1693
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History
Built in 1693-94 by Giovanni Battista Lambranzini (who was also
responsible for the nearby Santa Margherita (see below)
for Augustinian nuns, and paid for by Santo Donadoni.
It's also said that the six nuns who inhabited the hermit's cell (eremite
means hermit) above the door of San Marcuola moved here when
that church became unstable in 1693.
Suppressed in 1810, at which time 38 nuns were resident. The Cavanis
moved here from Spirito Santo in 1811. Canossian nuns moved in in 1863.
The complex has been used as a teacher training college, by various
schools, for language teaching, and as student and tourist accomodation.
Restored in late 90s by Venice in Peril as the church
had suffered severely from damp. Work described as 'stabilising and
consolidating the altars'. Also at this time the Fondation Jean-Barthélémy,
and others, paid for the restoration of paintings in the church in memory
of the painter Marie Thérèse Krafft, who lived nearby. This restoration
work, on four wall paintings by Francesco Pittoni depicting The Miracles
of St Augustine, was completed in 2002.
Interior
An aisleless nave with an enclosed choir behind the altar for the nuns.
Ceiling painting The Crowning of the Virgin attributed to
'school of Balestra'. 15th Century wooden choir stalls with gilt and
polychrome carving of Our Lady of Mercy.
Campanile 13m (42ft) no bells
Has an eight-sided budino- (or pudding-) shaped dome.
Vaporetto San Basilio
Opening times Closed.
Which after all that restoration work seemed
something of a
waste and a shame. But now (Summer 2009) it seems that there's more
restoration going on (see right). The work started in September 2008 and is due to last 240
days. And then?
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Photo by Brigitte Eckert
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Gesuati
Giorgio Massari 1726
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History
Monks from Sienna from the order of The Blessed Giovanni Colombino
established themselves here in 1392. In 1423 they built an oratory and
cloister dedicated to Saint Jerome. (They had previously occupied
the nearby church of Sant’Agnese.)
A proper church and monastery were built here by the Poor Gesuati order
(as they now called themselves) from
1494, consecrated 1524 and dedicated to Our Lady of the Visitation. The order was suppressed in 1668 and in 1669 the Dominicans
bought the place and got Giorgio Massari to build the present, much
larger, church, beginning work in 1726, nest to the site of the old
church, and finishing in 1743. The church became a parish church when the
order was suppressed in 1815. The monastery to the left of the
church, which had become a boys' home after suppression, is now the home of the
Istituto Don Orione.
The church
The niches on the façade (a more
theatrical reflection of the façade of the Redentore church opposite)
contain large statues depicting the four virtues. The interior is an
aisleless nave with six connecting side chapels full of exceptional 18th Century
art. A stone relief of the dead Christ supported by two Angels set into
the side wall of the church (seen to the right in the photo right) may
be from the original, suppressed, church.
Art highlights
A couple of Piazettas, one by Sebastiano Ricci, ceiling paintings by
Tiepolo and a badly restored Tintoretto Crucifixion which came from
the nearby Santa Maria della Visitazione, part of the same complex.
A visit
Aisleless, with three chapels either side of the nave linked by a
corridor. The effect of the walls and detailing is pale grey, getting
darker for the domed chancel, with it's unplain tabernacle by Massari.
This church is a good one for Tiepolo fans, with a fine altarpiece in the
first chapel on the right and some ceiling painting well worth the neck
ache, or the easier perusal using the handily provided (and correctly
shaped) floor-standing mirror.
Campanile 21m (68 ft) electromechanical bells
Also by Massari, with a matching parallel tower.
The church in art
Dominates right foreground of The Giudecca Canal with the Zattere
by Guardi.
Santa Maria del Rosario, known as Chiesa dei Gesuati, by Rubens Santoro (below) with bizarre truncation of the church and
the wrong campanile.
The Giudecca by David Roberts (detail further below).
Also many watercolours by John
Singer Sargent.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00
Sundays: closed
A Chorus Church
Vaporetto Zattere


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Ognissanti
16th Century
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History
Founded in 1472 by Cistercian nuns, with a convent and a hospice attached.
The church was rebuilt bigger from 1505 to 1580 and consecrated in 1586.
It was suppressed by the French in 1806 and stripped of its art. But in 1810 the
complex was reopened to house Capuchine nuns from the convent of Santa
Margherita in Torcello who had moved here because it was a more salubrious
location. They
brought their own paintings with them, the only famous name amongst them
being Palma il Giovane. The convent became an old people's home in the
19th Century and is now a hospital.
Lost art
Veronese's Coronation of the Virgin, from the high altar here, now
in the Accademia.
A visit in 2007
If you find this church open you'll find a small and plain and very used
convent church with a nun's gallery. It has even more crumble than usual and
no great art, apart from that by
locals and kids all pinned about. When I visited there was also a puzzling
sheet of hand-written text by which donations were sought, which was in
Italian and not easily understood, except that it did mention both Jesus
Christ and Elvis Presley. The latter, maybe, being an indication of the
type of life of sin which the writer had renounced by embracing the former.
A visit in 2009
When I'd visited before had not taken to this church. but this time,
with more time, and with the church deserted but for a monk reading a
newspaper, I liked it much more. It's still a crumbly and used-seeming
church - aisleless with a ceiling divided into compartments where small
paintings might be, but aren't. There's a big nun's gallery at the back
and two wall-attached altars each side. The apse and two side chapels have
frescoed ceilings, and for these alone I'd recommend a visit.
Campanile 40m (130ft)
manual bells
Opening times
pretty rare
Vaporetto San Basilio
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Saint George's
Luigi Marangoni
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Photo by Brigitte Eckert
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History
Built in the first two decade of the 20th Century. Converted from a warehouse previously belonging to the Venezia-Murano
Glass company and bought by Sir Henry Layard. He donated it to a committee
which had been set up to establish a permanent English Church in Venice.
The church opened in 1892, built to a design by engineer Luigi Marangoni, with sculptures by
Napoleone Martinuzzi. Contains the
tombstone of Consul Joseph Smith, which was taken from the Protestant
burial ground on the Lido, where he was buried, in 1968. There's also a
window commemorating Robert Browning who allowed Anglican services to be
held in the Ca’ Rezzonico during the time he lived there. It is one of
seven stained-glass windows recently restored with the help of Venice in
Peril.
Vaporetto Accademia |
Salute
Baldassare Longhena 1631-81
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The church that launched a thousand films.
History
The original monastery and church on this site, dedicated to The
Holy Trinity, was given by Venice to the Teutonic Knights in 1256 in
gratitude for their help in the war against Genoa. Suppression by Pope
Clement XVI followed in 1592 and the complex was given to the
patriarchate of Venice.
The complex was demolished in order that this church be built to hasten
and celebrate the end of the last great plague of 1630-31 which took 30%
of Venice’s population - Santa Maria della Salute means St Mary of
Health. The site was prestigious and a competition was held, among the
conditions of which being that the church be flashy but not too expensive.
The twenty-six year old Longhena’s winning
design took a Palladian base and made something freshly baroque and theatrical.
The dome with its crowds of angels and its famous huge volutes cannot be
said to make a small impression. And it needed to be impressive, as it
formed the centrepiece of the grand annual ceremony where the doge crossed
the canal on a specially-built bridge of barges and processed through the
central arch to give thanks for Venice’s deliverance. The ceremony
continues to this day, without a doge, but with crowds buying sweets and
candles and streaming across the rickety structure. In the 1930s it did
collapse, with Sir Osbert Sitwell on it. The church long symbolised
Venice’s triumph over adversity and its republican strength, just as its silhouette now symbolises Venice in almost every film and TV programme that gets made
about the city.
The church
An extravagant display, made up of eight Palladian façades, with the
grandest facing onto the Grand Canal Huge. Buttresses with orecchioni
(big ears) support the drum of the dome and lots of statues of saints
and angels. The lantern on top of the dome supports a statue of the Virgin
blessing the city. Behind there's the smaller dome over the sanctuary and
two delicate campanili.
Interior
The interior is impressive but unsurprising, given the external appearance
– a quite plain octagonal space with an ambulatory and six radiating chapels. I
recently read that the paving is inlaid with 33 roses symbolising the 33
years of Jesus's life, but I've not been able to check this fact.
Art highlights
Works by Titian (including the Pentacost which, like all the works by him
in this church, was taken from the deconsecrated
church of Santo Spirito in Isola) and Tintoretto, amongst others, and a Byzantine icon of The
Virgin set into the somewhat overpopulated altar.
Campanile 48m (156ft) electromechanical bells
Two towers, but only one has bells.
Edwardian suicides
In 1908 jean Cocteau wrote a poem called Souvenir d'un soir d'automne
au jardin Eaden, which tells of an argument between Cocteau's
companion on his trip to Venice and a young American. The quarrel, which
took place in the
Garden of Eden,
lead to the friend's shooting himself on the steps of the Salute, which
was a not-unusual event at the time, it seems. Francois Mauriac, writing
in Le Mal many years later, mentions this event and says of the
steps of the Salute: One cannot even count all the young men who have
chosen to die there!
Ruskin said
One of the earliest buildings of the Grotesque Renaissance,
rendered impressive by its position, size, and general proportions. These
latter are exceedingly good; the grace of the whole building being chiefly
dependent on the inequality of size in its cupolas, and pretty grouping of
the two campaniles behind them. It is to be generally observed that the
proportions of buildings have nothing whatever to do with the style of
general merits of their architecture. An architect trained in the worst
schools, and utterly devoid of all meaning or purpose in his work may yet
have such natural gift of massing and grouping as will render all his
structures effective when seen from a distance: such a gift is very
general with the late Italian builders, so that many of the most
contemptible edifices in the country have good stage effect so long as we
do not approach them. The Church of the Salute is farther assisted by the
beautiful flight of steps in front to fit down to the canal; and its
façade is rich and beautiful of its kind, and was chosen by Turner for the
principal object in this well-known view of the Grand Canal. The principal
faults of the building are the meagre windows in the sides of the cupola,
and the ridiculous disguise of the buttresses under the form of colossal
scrolls; the buttresses themselves being originally a hypocrisy, for the
cupola is stated by Lazari to be of timber, and therefore needs none. The
sacristy contains several precious pictures: the three on its roof by
Titian, much vaunted, are indeed as feeble as they are monstrous; but the
small Titian, "St. Mark, with Sts. Cosmo and Damian," was, when I first
saw it, to my judgment, by far the first work of Titian's in Venice. It
has since been restored by the Academy, and it seemed to me entirely
destroyed, but I had not time to examine it carefully.
The church in art
Amongst the many views are the usuals - Canaletto, Guardi, Marieschi - but
perhaps the most famous are Sickert's and Sargent's. They both had a thing
for cropped views.
Film and TV
Used extensively in establishing shots that say Look - it's Venice!
Amongst the most memorable scenes are the threesome having a picnic on the
steps in The Wings of a Dove and the dome appearing mysteriously
over Katherine Hepburn's shoulder as she chooses shoes in Summertime. (I
say 'mysteriously' because there are no shops anywhere near the church.)
Opening times
Daily 9.00-12.00, 3.00-5.00
Vaporetto Salute
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San Barnaba
Lorenzo Boschetti 1749-76
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History
Founded in 809, burnt down in 1105, rebuilt and consecrated in 1350. the current church dates from 1749-76 and is by
Lorenzo Boschetti, a follower of Massari. The façade is another
Greek temple front, but with even beefier columns than usual. The art is
minor stuff, although there is a recently-restored Holy family with the
infant Saint John (brought here from the Maddalena church in Padua in
1774)
which some, Bernard Berenson included, have attributed to Veronese.
There's also a ceiling fresco by Cedini, a follower of Tiepolo.
Campanile 35m (114 ft) manual bells
Brickwork with cone shaped steeple. Dates from the 11th
Century and so is one of Venice's oldest. Rebuilt(?) in 1350 and
restored in 1882 by Lodovico Cadorin.
The church in film
Featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - under the floor our hero
finds catacombs, rats and dead Crusaders, and later emerges from a manhole
in the campo. Katherine Hepburn fell into the canal in
front of the church in
Summertime.
The church in art
Maschere à San Barnaba by Italico Brass (see right).
Opening times
The church used to be rarely open, but is currently open 9.30 - 7.30 daily due to a
'temporary' exhibition of models of Leonardo's
machines which has been here for years and shows no sign of leaving. (Find
details
here.) But there's a lot
of scaffolding and stuff inside too, which makes appreciation
of the actual fabric of the church pretty much impossible.
Vaporetto Ca' Rezzonico
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San Gregorio
Antonio di Cremona 15th
Century
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From Jacopo de'Barbari's map of 1500,
showing the back of the church to the right
and the cloister behind.
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History
Founded in 806 and given to Benedictine monks in 989 who founded an abbey
here in 1160. The current church dates from the mid-15th Century and is by
Antonio di Cremona. It's closely modelled on the nearby church of the
Carità with its three-part Gothic façade and has a triple-apse (see
below left) facing onto a
canal at the rear. Built into the façade of the canonica to the
right is an arch from a 14th Century funerary monument, visible in the
film still below.
The skin of Marcantonio Bragadin, flayed alive by the Turks in 1571, was
kept here before being moved to San Zanipolo in 1596.
Suppressed by the French in 1806 and turned into a workshop for the Zecca
(the Mint). It fell into a sad state of disrepair in the mid-20th
Century and plans were made to make it into a concert hall. It's now home to
furniture (and/or art) restorers.
Cloister
Adjoining, with an entrance (attributed to Bartolomeo Bon) facing the
Grand Canal. It's all that remains of the abbey, which had two
cloisters until one was demolished in the late 19th Century.
Ruskin said
An important church of the fourteenth century, not desecrated, but
still interesting. Its apse is on the little canal crossing from the Grand
Canal to the Giudecca, beside the Church of the Salute, and is very
characteristic of the rude ecclesiastical Gothic contemporary with the
Ducal Palace. The entrance to its cloisters, from the Grand Canal, is
somewhat later; a noble square door, with two windows on each side of it,
the grandest examples in Venice of the late window of the fourth order.
The cloister, to which this door gives entrance, is exactly contemporary
with the finest work of the Ducal Palace, circa 1350. It is the loveliest
cortile I know in Venice; its capitals consummate in design and execution;
and the low wall on which they stand showing remnants of sculpture unique,
as far as I know, in such application.
The church in film
The church and the campo in front of the entrance features in
Who saw her
die? (see below).
Opening times
Now used as a restorer's workshop.
Vaporetto Salute
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San Nicolo dei Mendicoli
12th-16th Centuries
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History
This area is thought to be one of the first parts of Venice to be settled,
being so close to the mainland, and tradition says that the first church
here was built in the 7th century by Paduans fleeing the Langobards.
(Although some books say that this building may have been a military structure.)
Recent restoration work found the foundations of this earlier church, which was
dedicated to St Lawrence, and discovered that it became a Greek-cross shaped in the
8th Century. Fire destroyed this church in 1105 and the current church was
built. In the late 12th Century it was dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra. The
name 'dei Mendicoli' means 'of the Beggars', reflecting the area's long
history as home to Venice's working classes, traditionally fishermen and
their families. The church was restored in 1361-4 and remodelled in
1553-80. The last major changes were made in 1750-60 when the new Istrian
stone entrance façade was created. A priest was imprisoned for not being
able to say where the money for the 18th Century rebuilding came from.
It was said that a hoard of Roman gold and silver coins had been found
under the campanile. This story also helps add weight to the one about
the church being built on the site of an ancient temple. Venice in Peril carried out major restoration
work from 1972-80, including re-roofing, damp-proofing, work on paintings
and crucifixes, and the raising of the floor, which was 30cm below
canal level.
The church
The creation of the present Greek temple front façade (to the left of the
photo above right) resulted in restoration work on the old 15th Century
porch (to the right of the photo) which was once a common feature but now
the only other one is at San Giacomo di Rialto. It was rebuilt in 1903
using bits of the 12th Century building. Poor and virtuous women were
allowed to shelter and sleep here. The newer entrance has statues of the
Virgin (centre) and Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint John of Nepomucene.
The interior
The 12th Century basilica plan is set off by two colonnades of columns with
14th Century capitals surmounted by rows of statues of the twelve
apostles dating from the 16th Century. The paintings are mostly 17th
Century. So it's even more of a mixture of periods and styles than usual, but a
pleasing effect nonetheless, based upon numerical harmonies.
A visit
A nave with two aisles, with the three-arched screen between the nave
and the apse (see right) here giving the impression of aisles on
three sides. The three deep chapels in the right aisle make for a pleasing
asymmetrical impression, and it's this spatial interest that appeals here,
and the atmosphere generated by the darker upper parts. There's no
big-name art here - even the Marieschi painting is labelled 'attrib' and
there's a lot of 'anonime' works too. The varied and attractive frescoing
on all of the chapel ceilings, though, is appealing. And do put a Euro in
to illuminate the place - it cuts down on some of the shadowy atmosphere
but makes it much easier to see what you're looking at.

Campanile
26m (85ft) manual bells
Dates from the 12th Century building. Damaged by a stray bomb in WWII. The clock was added in 1764.
Also benefited from the restoration work by Venice in peril in the
1970s.
Fresco upstairs
Crucifixion with saints from the 14th Century (photo
right) recently discovered. See my
fresco story
The church in film
This is the church that Donald Sutherland is restoring in Don’t
Look Now.
Opening times
Mon-Sat 10.00-12.00, 4.00-6.00
Sunday 4.00-6.00
Vaporetto San Basilio
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San Pantalon
Francesco Comino 1668-86
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This detail from the Merian map of 1635
shows
the old San Pantalon side-on to the canal,
with Santa Margherita
(left foreground) still with its campanile.
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History
Tradition says that this church was founded in the 9th Century, but the
earliest written record is dated 1101. It was dedicated to Saints Pantaleon and Giuliana, but became plain San Pantalon. The church was
rebuilt, and reconsecrated in 1305. The Barbari map of 1500 shows its
façade facing Rio de San Pantalon. Later a portico facing onto the campo
was added. When it was rebuilt in 1668-86 by Francesco Comino (aka Antonio
Comin?) the church's
orientation was swivelled by 90 degrees so that the (still unfinished,
looming brick) façade faced the campo. It is said that Comino plans for
the façade had been inspired by the church of the Redentore and San
Lazzaro dei Mendicanti.
San Pantaleon, a 13th Century doctor from Nicomedia, became famous in
Venice in the 18th Century due to a play written by Goldoni.
Art highlights
Undoubtedly the highlight here is the
very Baroque ceiling by Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, done between 1680 and 1704, depicting scenes from The Martyrdom
and Glorification of St Pantaleon amongst looming illusionistic
architectural perspectives. It's the largest oil painting in the world,
measuring around 443 square feet and made up of 40 canvases sewn together. Ruskin found it vulgar,
unsurprisingly. The artist is said to have fallen to his death from the
scaffolding whilst painting, but this may just be a story.
Before visiting I
had been prepared somewhat by reading all of this but when I
actually got in and under it...wow! The big problem with this church is
gloom, it has to be said - it's a dark church with very sparse lighting, but
once your eyes acclimatise the ceiling reveals itself as something
very special. The looming architecture and the hoards of characters...you'll
swear that there are real people
up there, so convincing are the protruding limbs. Some ceiling
paintings impress merely with their scale, but this one is artistically
impressive to match.
There's also a Veronese here (see left) The Miracle of San Pantalon
which he began painting a year before he died and which is
often said to have been his last work. It was restored
by Venice in Peril for the Genius of Venice exhibition at the Royal
Academy in London in 1983. You'll have to
put your €.50 in the slot for the light, though, or you'll see nothing, literally,
thanks to the darkness and the reflections. If this church ever gets a
clean and good lighting it'll blow people away.
There are also frescoes by Pietro Longhi.

Campanile 47m (153ft) manual bells
The original church's tower was restored 1225 and demolished in 1511 after
an earthquake.
Built
1704-32 and attributed to Giovanni Scalfarotto. It has a
neo-classical belfry with a tall circular drum above and an elongated
dome. To me it looks a lot
like a vibrator, I'm sorry.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday:
4.00-6.00
Vaproretto Ca' Rezzonico
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San Sebastiano
Antonio Scarpagnino 1508-48 |
In a word: Veronese.
History
The first church on this site was an oratory to Santa Maria Assunta,
founded in 1396 by the Girolamini - the order of the
Hermits of Saint Jerome. Between 1455-68 it was replaced by a bigger church also
dedicated to Mary, but to Saint Sebastian too in thanksgiving to the
saint for his deliverance of the local population from the plague of 1464.
The building of the current church and its monastery
saw the church's façade switched from facing the Campazzo San Sebastiano
(as seen in De Barbari's map of of 1500) to the current arrangement facing
the canal. This work was carried out by Antonio Scarpagnino between 1508
and 1548. The church and the convent next door were suppressed in 1810 by
Napoleon and the convent was partially demolished before being rebuilt in
1856. The building now houses the University of Venice's department of
literature and philosophy.
The church
The façade is dominated by the two pairs of Corinthian columns on each
level, which support a large tympanum with statues of Saint Jerome, Saint
Catherine of Alexandria and, in the middle, Saint Sebastian. The interior
is a monumental classical space, aisleless and simple, but overwhelming
due to...
The art
As you go to the Madonna dell’Orto and the Scuola di San Rocco for Tintoretto and to San Giorgio
degli Schiavoni for Carpaccio, so this church is Veronese central. This was
his parish church, and tradition has it that he found refuge in the
monastery after killing a love rival. He began decorating it at the age of 30,
working here from 1555 to 1581. The ceiling shows scenes from the life of
Esther and the walls show the life of Saint Sebastian. The trompe l'oeil painting here is almost unnerving in the way
it blends so smoothly with the architecture, which had been finished only a few years before. You get the impression
that the church was built specifically to house the trompe l'oeil vistas
and the combination of art, sculpture and architecture is seamless.
Veronese had trained as a stonecutter too and designed the altar. He died in
1588 and was buried here - his tombstone is in the floor near the organ.
Also some 'minor interventions' by Titian, Palma il Giovane, and an 18th
Centrury painter called Federico Bencovich.

Lost art
Veronese's The Feast at the house of Simon, painted
for the refectory here, looted by Napoleon and now in the Brera Gallery in
Milan.
Campanile
Built between 4th March 1544 and 21st May 1546
(the plaque at the base tells us) also by Scarpagnino. It originally had a cone-shaped
spire with coloured glazed tiles.
Ruskin said
The tomb, and of old the monument, of Paul Veronese. It is full of
his noblest pictures, or of what once were such; but they seemed to me for
the most part destroyed by repainting. I had not time to examine them
justly, but I would especially direct the traveller's attention to the
small Madonna over the second altar on the right of the nave, still a
perfect and priceless treasure.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00
Sundays: closed
A Chorus Church
Vaporetto San Basilio
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San Trovaso
Francesco Smeraldi
1584-1657
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History
The name is a Venetian blending of two saints: San Protasio and San
Gervasio. The ancient church was
renovated by the Barbarigo and Caravella families in the early 9th
Century and rebuilt after the fire of 1105. This building then collapsed on
11th September 1583, with work on the present church beginning in the
following year, probably to a design by Francesco Smeraldi, a pupil of
Palladio, although sometimes Palladio himself is credited with the design. Consecration followed in 1657. There was hefty restoration work in the
19th Century, especially to the altars. Further work,
mostly on the roof, was carried out in 1987.
The church
The building has two identical façades (modelled on Le Zitelle on Giudecca). This was
said to be so that the two rival local factions, the Nicolotti and
Castellani families, could each have an entrance of equal importance.
Interior
A Latin cross with six chapels along the nave.
A visit
For such an out-of-the-way church the bigness is what
sticks in the memory - the previous church which collapsed would've fitted along the current
transept. The net curtains in the
clerestory windows and the cheesy piped new-age music are memorable too,
but for the wrong reasons.
Art highlights
Works attributed to Tintoretto and his son, but likely mostly by the latter. And Palma il Giovane. In Tintoretto
senior's The Temptations of St Anthony you might notice the 'harlot
with flames playing around her loins' as Ruskin put it.
Campanile 53m (172ft) manual bells
The map from 1635 (see detail below) shows an earlier tower
without the octagonal drum on top.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday: 8.00-11.00, 3.00-6.00
Vaporetto Zattere

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San Vio
Giovanni Pividor 1865
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Photo by Robert Yates

Photo by Brigitte Eckert |
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History
The original church of San Vio (dedicated to St Vitus and his partner in
martyrdom St Modestus) was built in 912 by the Vido and Balbi families. It was rebuilt
in the five years following Bajamonte Tiepolo's unsuccessful conspiracy against
the republic on the 15th June 1310, using much masonry from Tiepolo's
demolished palazzo at Sant'Agostin - the door to the palazzo becoming the
door to the church (see print below). The doge and signoria would visit the
church annually on that day, which is also Saint Vitus's day, to
commemorate Tiepolo's defeat. In 1354 the small campo in front of the
church was extended down to the Grand Canal, by demolishing the
Tagliapetra palazzo, so that the dignitaries would have a grander
approach.
The church had seven altars, under one of which was placed the
miraculously preserved (and miracle-working) body of the Contessa
Tagliapetra. The was a cupola with frescoes by Girolamo Brusaferro and
altarpieces that were school-of Veronese and Giovanni Bellini. The church
also contained the tomb of Rosalba Carriera. Restoration work in 1745
found the floor of the original church, 8ft below the then-current floor
level.
The church was closed in 1808 and declared dangerous and demolished
in July 1813. Fragments from the church were used in the building of the
current
chapel nearby, opened in 1865, for Gaspare Biondetti Crovato, to a design by Giovanni Pividor.
Fragments from the house of Bajamonte Tiepolo were reused again too,
around the door. It is now a private
residence, belonging to one Piero Pinto, and closed to the public. I'm not even sure that it counts as a church, strictly speaking. A sweet little building, though,
and an interesting history.
Local colour
A petrol pump, for the use of motor boats, once stood in the campo,
as late as the 1970s.
Vaporetto Accademia

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Sant’Agnese
Early 14th Century
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History
First mentioned in a document of 1081. Rebuilt after a fire in 1105.
Consecrated in 1321. Interior decoration work in 1604 and 1670 by Lodovico
Bruzzoni. Restoration work in 1733 then
suppression by the French in 1810 and the church stripped of its art and furnishings.
After a time as a warehouse for firewood and coal the church it was
acquired in
1839 by Antonangelo and Marcantonio Cavanis. Restoration work on the
interior and facde followed and the church reopened in 1872 as an oratory for the nearby Educational Institute of the Cavanis.
Art highlight
Reportedly the only remaining art of note is The Guardian Angel
by Lattanzio Querena.
Lost art
The Coronation of the Virgin by Michele Giambono, now in the
Accademia, is 'most probably' (says the catalogue) the same painting
commissioned in 1447 by Giovanni Dotto for Sant’Agnese. Giambono was also
a mosaicist - his work can be seen in San Marco.
Campanile
12th Century, demolished 1837-38. The lower part still stands, now topped
by a three-arched bell tower.
Opening times
Vaporetto Zattere
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A detail from the map from 1635 showing Sant'Agnese (to left and below centre) before the canal
in front of it was filled in.
On the opposite side of the canal the Gesuati hasn't been built yet. And
below right is the old church of San Vio.
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Santa Margherita
Giovanni Battista Lambranzi 17th Century
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History
One of the oldest churches in Venice, originally built by the merchant
Geniano Busignaco and consecrated in 853, during the reign of doge Pietro Tradonico.
It was said to have had a gold-covered apse with mosaics and to have had
a dome supported by four marble columns. By the time of De Barbari's map
there is no dome.
The
current church dates from the 1687 rebuilding by Giovanni Battista Lambranzi,
also responsible for the nearby, and similarly plain-fronted, church of
Le Eremite (see above).
Saint Margaret of Antioch was a saint very popular in the East, as was
Saint Pantaleon who also has a church very nearby, suggestion that this area
was popular with Byzantine merchants.
The church was suppressed in 1808, becaming a tobacco factory and then a
storehouse for marble from the suppressed churches. From 1882 the building was used as an evangelical church,
then the studio of sculptor Luigi Borro, and then a cinema. In the
early 1990s it was converted by architect Luciano Gemin into a
lecture hall for Venice University's architecture faculty.
Peering through the door you'll see a plain space with the look of a
conference centre, the pews having been replaced by rows of
stacking chairs. Various carvings from the church
have been set into the campanile and the walls of the adjacent house.
Campanile
In 1808 the upper part of the campanile was
demolished as it was unsafe, leaving a 46ft stump for use as a house. The
painting below, by Gabriel Bella, shows the campanile intact in
the late 18th Century, though looking a bit wonky.
Lost art
Three paintings - a Last supper, The Washing of the feet and
Agony in the Garden painted by Tintoretto for this church are now in
Santo Stefano.
Vaproretto
Ca' Rezzonico


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Santa Maria della Carità
(Accademia)
Bartolomeo Bon 1441-52
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The church of Our Lady of Charity and the Scuola della Carità are now
the Accademia Gallery. The facade is to your left as you go in through the main
entrance to the gallery, or will be if the scaffolding ever comes down.
Until then we have an old postcard (right) which also shows the
original iron bridge. The domed skylights, the carved panel over the main
doorway to the gallery, and the statue over the entrance building are also
long gone.
History
The first church and convent on this site were founded in 1134 by an
Augustinian order of friars from Ravenna, although it is said there was a
wooden church on the site before this. It was consecrated bt Pope
Alexander II in 1177. In 1260 the buildings passed to
the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carità, making it the oldest of the
six Scuole Grande in Venice. (The confraternity had been established in
1260 in the church of San Leonardo in Cannaregio.) A guildhall was built
beside the convent in 1344, followed in 1441-52 by a larger church built
by Bartolomeo Bon. The convent was rebuilt in 1552 to a design by
Palladio. Following the church's suppression, and partial demolition, in 1807 the whole complex was
converted into a home for the Venetian Academy by Giannantonio Selva. Work
finished in 1810 and the gallery opened in 1817. It contains many works
from the suppressed and demolished churches mentioned elsewhere on this
website.
The church
Room 23, the last big room on the tour of the Accademia, which houses
temporary exhibitions, is the upper part of the church, but there's
nothing much to see or idea to be gained. The other rooms were converted
from rooms in the original Scuola and convent by Carlo Sarpa in 1950. The
first room, the former chapter house of the Scuola, has a gilded ceiling
said to be by Marco Cozzi. It is one of the two rooms where original
features can be seen. The other is the albergo of the Scuola, which is
adjacent to the chapter house, but comes at the end of the tour. It has
benches and a 15th Century ceiling, along with Titian's very architectural
Presentation of the Virgin in its original position.
Campanile
Visible in both the paintings mentioned below. It suddenly collapsed in
1741 without damaging the church, but destroying two houses and depositing
two traghetti into Campo San Vidal over the other side of the Grand
Canal.
Lost art
Four triptychs said to be Giovanni Bellini, but of 'questionable
attribution' are now in...the Accademia. The scuola here had a Bellini
Madonna and Child with a Glory of Red Cherubim too, now also in the
Accademia.
The tomb of Doge Nicolò da Ponte, who died in 1585, was designed by
Daniele Barbaro and finished by Scamozzi, but was destroyed. The tomb of
doges Marco and Agostino Barbarigo, attribute to Codussi, was moved to
San Salvador.
The church in art
Canaletto's Grand Canal from Santa Maria della Carità to the Bacino
di San Marco (right). Also to be seen in the background of his
Stonemason's yard in the National Gallery in London.
Ruskin said
Once an interesting Gothic church of the fourteenth century, lately
defaced, and applied to some of the usual important purposes of the modern
Italians. The effect of its ancient façade may partly be guessed at from
the picture of Canaletto, but only guessed at; Canaletto being less to be
trusted for renderings of details, than the rudest and most ignorant
painter of the thirteenth century.
Opening times
Monday 8.15-2.00
Tuesday-Sunday 8.15-7.15
Vaporetto Accademia
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Santa Maria della Visitazione
1493-1524
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History
Built by the Gesuati order, to replace an oratory dating from their arrival
in Venice in 1390, this church is said to have been
designed by Tullio Lombardo or Mauro Codussi. Building work began in 1493
with consecration coming in 1524.
When the larger Gesuati church was built this church went through many
changes before becoming a library in 1750. Suppressed in 1810, the
church was reopened in 1825 and restored in 1884, and than again in 1947-8.
The church is now the chapel of
the
Istituto Don Orione
which has taken over the Gesuati's monastery complex (see below left). The complex had been an
orphanage from suppression until Don Orione's purchase of the place in
1923. Orphans continued to be taught there until 1980 when the monastery
became student accommodation. In the 1990s part of the complex was
converted to 'religious boarding'.
The church
The lovely Lombardesque façade is probably the source of the
Lombardo/Codussi attribution. The statues on top, The Saviour and two
saints, are contemporary with the
façade.
There is a bocca del leone, a lion's mouth, to the right of the
church where anonymous accusations could be posted. This one was for the
Magistrati della Sanita (sanitation department)
Interior
A plain aisleless nave designed by Francesco da Mandello with a blind
cupola and a choir. The Corinthian columns around the entrance were
salvaged from the demolished oratory.
Art highlights
When it was suppressed by
Napoleon it was stripped of its art (a Tintoretto Crucifixion taken
from this church
is now in the Gesuati) except for the coffered ceiling whose 58
compartments contain portraits of saints and prophets. These are Umbrian
school and attributed to Pier Paolo Agabiti. This ceiling was found to be
in need of restoration and work was due to begin in 1970. It was finally
restored in the mid-1990s by
Venice in Peril, following a dispute over ownership of the building which
held up the work and led to further deterioration.
Opening times
(Update - September 2009 - closed for
restoration work)
Monday-Saturday
Apr-Sep 8.00-12.30, 2.30-7.00
Oct-Mar 8.00-12.30, 2.30-6.00
Vaporetto Zattere
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Santa Marta
15th
Century
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History
A church, with a convent and a hospital, was founded in 1316 by Giacomina
Scorpioni from the
Benedictine
convent of San Lorenzo d'Ammiana. Between 1460 and 1480 it was rebuilt. In
the 16th Century the complex passed to Augustinian nuns. Following
suppression in 1805 it was used by the army to store animal fodder, then as a
railway company
warehouse in the 20th Century when it still had its partly restored 'ancient roof
of sprung beams' according to Lorenzetti.
A visit
The church
is now a very clean brick box in between a road and a dockside car park. It seems to
have had all the life and aging scrubbed off the exterior, leaving nice warm-coloured
brickwork but very little character.
Lost art
A bas relief of Santa Marta surrounded by nuns which was taken from above
the door here is now in Angelo Raffaele, and that from the door of the
convent went to Sant'Eufemia over on Giudecca.
Campanile
Demolished in 1910. The De Barbari map shows a tower topped by a conical
spire with four pinnacles. In the Canaletto painting below the campanile
has a dome.
Local colour
A famous fair, celebrated on the eve the Feast of St Martha in August,
involved fishermen roasting sfogi (flatfish) on the beach,
dancing, and the mingling of the classes. There is a Canaletto painting
of this fair, La Vigilia di S. Marta, in the
Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (see below). It is one of only two known Canaletto night-views, the other
being La Vigilia di San Pietro.
Opening times Closed
Update
2009:
Now being used as a theatre venue and art gallery during the Biennale.
Vaporetto Santa Marta

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Interior photos by Brigitte Eckert

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Santa Teresa
Andrea Cominelli 1688
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History
The church and convent were built in the late 17th Century by Andrea
Cominelli (who had worked with Longhena) for the Sisters of Saint Theresa
and consecrated in 1688.
The convent (to the left of the church) was a hostel for homeless people
and a nursery school in the 20th Century. It is now home to the faculty of
arts and design of the The University Iuav of Venice.
Interior
Used to (and may still) contain a fine range of 17th Century art.
These included a Madonna and saints by Guarana, Saint Teresa in glory
by Ranieri and Christ crucified and the Magdalen by the Genoese
painter G. B. Langetti. The latter was restored in 1949 and moved to the
Museum of 17th Century Art in the Ca'Rezzonico.
Opening times
The church is 'closed for restoration'.
Vaporetto San Basilio
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Spirito Santo
Antonio Abbondi 1506
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History
The church and its convent were founded in 1483 by Maria Caroldo and rebuilt in 1506
to a design by Antonio Abbondi (known as Lo Scarpagnino). The Scuola to
the right of the church was also added in 1506. In 1520 the
Zattere fondamenta was built and the apse was demolished and the present Lombardesque
façade built. It was finished in 1524 by Giacomo de Bernardis, under
Scarpagnino's supervision. Suppressed in 1806, but reopened a few years
later. The Scuola became a warehouse and is now a private residence.
The interior and art highlights
The interior is said to be be very redolent of two hundred years of
restoration. The back of the façade is taken up with a funerary monument
to Paolo Paruta, an historian of the Venetian Republic, said to be by
Longhena and built around 1651. His son and brother are interred here too. Also said to contain
pictures by Guarana and Palma il Giovanne.
The church in art
Five watercolours by John Singer Sargent 1902-4 (see below) and
one by his sister. The watercolour below was once owned by William James,
son of William Sr and nephew of Henry, having been given it by Sargent's
sister.
Opening times
Always closed
Vaporetto Zattere
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