The Churches of Venice

Convertite
		History Founded in 1534 as part of a complex that also included a convent and a hospice for reformed prostitutes. Restoration work on the church later in the same century was paid for by the merchant Bartolomeo Bontempelli. Originally named for St Mary Magdelene it became known as delle Convertite to reflect its role in converting 'fallen' women. The institution soon became notorious, however, due to its rector Fra Giovanni Pietro Leon using the 400 nuns as his personal harem. He would 'test' the women when they came to confess, but if they resisted he would have them imprisoned and beaten. And so was their resistance beaten down. He was denounced to the Council of Ten in 1561 and beheaded in Piazza San Marco (it took 8 goes, evidently) and his remains burned. Suppressed by the French in the first decade of the 19th Century, the Austrians made the complex into a jail and it has been a women's prison since 1957. The prison entrance is to the right of the façade in the photo. On Thursday mornings organic fruit and vegetables grown by the inmates in the prison gardens are sold from a stall in front of the church. Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
Redentore Andrea Palladio/Antonio Da Ponte 1577-92
		Theatrical! History Fiorenza Corner and Teodosia Scripiana built a church and monastery to St Mary of the Angels, given to Fra Bonaventura degli Emmanueli and his Capuchins in 1541. They were expelled five years later by the heretic Fra Bernadino Occhino, they found refuge in the nearby monastery of Sant'Angelo, returning in 1548 when the monastery was destroyed and the heretic expelled. A new church was commissioned from Palladio by the Republic to commemorate the end of the 1576 plague (which killed 50,000 people, Titian among them) the church of the Redentore (Redeemer) was built for ceremony, on the site of the church of San Jacopo . Palladio's original design was for a central-plan church like the Pantheon, but this was rejected as a pagan building. What was eventually built is reckoned to be Palladio's finest church, it was completed by Da Ponte following Palladio's death in 1592.The high and wide staircase and the huge doorway are designed for processions. And the church is made to be seen from afar -the best view (left) being from the Zattare opposite. The Festival of the Redentore, giving thanks for the end of the plague, continues. Every year on the third Sunday in July a bridge on barges is built from the Zattere so that Venetians can make the pilgrimage previously lead by the Doge and the Signoria. The festival is also famous for the fireworks the night before. Interior Fine, but with no great paintings. There are three good paintings by Jacopo Bassano, Veronese and Alvise Vivarini but these are in the (rarely open) sacristy. Campanile 48m (136ft) electromechanical bells Two minaret-like towers The church in art Il Redentore by Duncan Grant, 1948. The Church of the Redentore by Canaletto (below left) from the Manchester Art Gallery. The demolished church of San Giacomo della Giudecca is visible to the right. The Depositing of John Bellini's Three Pictures in the Church of the Redentore, Venice by J.M.W. Turner shows the three Bellini paintings arriving in splendid procession in gondolas. This almost definitely never happened, especially as the paintings in question are now known to not be Bellini's work (see below). Ruskin said It contains three interesting John Bellinis, and also, in the sacristy, a most beautiful Paul Veronese. The three 'John Bellinis' were also mentioned in George Eliot's Journals in 1864 but have since been reattributed to Bissolo and Alvise Vivarini Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00 Sundays: closed A Chorus Church Vaporetto Redentore The church of San Jacopo, demolished to build the Redentore. Photo below by Albert Hickson.

San Gerardo Sagredo
Named after the Venetian-born bishop who took off from San Giorgio Maggiore to convert the Hungarians in the 10th Century. Martyred in Budapest, his remains are supposedly now to be found in Santi Maria e Donato on Murano. This is a modern church built amongst the modern flats on the Sacca Fisola.
San Giorgio Maggiore Andrea Palladio/Simeone Sorella 1565-97

Conspicuous! As an image of the Salute church screams 'Venice!' so too does a photo of San Giorgio Maggiore taken from in front of the Doge's Palace, usually with parallel-parked gondolas in the foreground. History There's been a church on this island, originally known as the Isola dei Cipressi, since the 9th Century. Previously there'd been a vineyard, a cypress grove and a mill. A Benedictine monastery was established here in 982, with a church erected in 987 by Vitale Candido and the Badoer family. The body of Saint Stephen was brought here in 1109 from Constantinople and from then on the Doge and the Signoria visited the church every year on the saint's day, the 26th December, and this became one of the most popular festival days in the Venetian calendar, involving the floating of thousands of candles in the Bacino di San Marco, lasting until the end of the Republic. In 1204 the body of Saint Lucy was brought here too, but her feast day celebrations on the December 13th became so popular that after a storm resulted in the deaths of many people in 1280 her body was moved to the church of Santa Lucia in Cannaregio. The church and monastery were damaged by an earthquake in 1223 and rebuilt by Doge Pietro Ziani, who later retreated here. Palladio's replacement of this gothic church, together with his renovation and enlarging of the monastery, began in 1565. The church was also realigned at this time - its façade originally faced San Marco. Palladio died in 1580 and Simeone Sorella continued the work for a further 30 years. In 1610 Palladio's facade was finally finished, having been begun by Sorella in 1597. The façade Another temple front, it's a development of Palladio's design of for the façade of San Francesco della Vigna. A visit The interior is a Latin cross - stony and monumental, with white walls and thick clusters of supporting columns and pilasters. On the right as you enter is an Adoration of the Shepherds by Jacopo da Bassano, an atmospheric night time scene that benefits greatly from a .50 euro coin in the light. Opposite it is an odd Martyrdom of Saint Lucy by Leandro de Bassano (one of Jacopo's four sons, who were all painters in his studio) which depicts strong men and oxen trying to move the saint with ropes. I went up the campanile too - 3 euros and there's a lift - for some stunning views over Venice, and into the nearby cloisters (below right). Art highlights Three late Tintorettos (including a deposition painted in the year of his death). Also works by the Bassanos, Ricci and Palma il Giovane Lost art Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, was removed from the refectory of the monastery by Napoleon and is shamefully still in the Louvre. On September 11th 2007, to celebrate the 210th anniversary of the looting, a computer-generated facsimile was hung where the painting should be. The church in art Monet, Turner, Guardi, Canaletto... Campanile 63m (206ft) electromechanical bells The original campanile stood in front of the church, collapsed in 1442 during a storm and was rebuilt. A new tower, behind the church, was built in 1729 by Scalfarrotto following the collapse of the previous campanile in 1726. This one itself collapsed in 1774, killing one monk and wounding two others, and was rebuilt in 1791 by Fra Benadetto Buratti. In 1993 the wooden angel on the top of the campanile was struck by lightning. It now stands in front of the ticket office for the campanile. A lift takes you to the top, giving panoramic views towards San Marco and into the monastery's cloisters. Ruskin said It is impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard. Observe, also, that when Palladio had got his pediment at the top of the church, he did not know what to do with it; he had no idea of decorating it except by a round hole in the middle ... Palladio had given up colour, and pierced his pediment with a circular cavity, merely because he had not wit enough to fill it with sculpture. The interior of the church is like a large assembly room, and would have been undeserving of a moment's attention, but that it contains some most precious pictures. The Monastery Cosimo de' Medici when he was banished from Florence in 1433 took refuge here. He brought Michelozzo with him who designed and built a library (demolished in 1614 to make way for Longhena's grander library) to show Cosimo's gratitude. There are two cloisters. One Giovanni Buora's Cloister of the Bay Trees begun in 1517 and completed by Buora's son Andrea in 1540. The other is Palladio's untypical Cloister of the Cypresses, begun in 1579, the year before died, but not completed until the mid 17th Century. In 1806 the monks moved to Santa Giustina. In 1808 an airship was built in the church and in 1929 the complex became a barracks and ammunitions store In 1951 the monastery was taken over and restored by art patron Count Vittorio Cini , and renamed in memory of his son Giorgio, who was killed in an air crash in 1949. It now hosts conferences and courses and so is not generally open to the public, except at weekends when there are guided tours. Some Benedictine monks remain too. The Cini Foundation website The church in film In memoria di me (In memory of me) an Italian film released in 2007, was filmed in the monastery and the church. And very handsome they look too, especially at night with atmospheric lighting. Opening times Mon-Sat: 9.30-12.30 and 2.30-6.30 Sunday: 2.00-6.30 Vaporetto Isola San Giorgio
Sant’Eufemia
		History Founded in 865 and initially dedicated to four female saints - Euphemia, Dorothy, Tecla and Erasma, but as time passed the first saint's name came to dominate. The church became known colloquially as Famia and was renovated in 952. Reconsecrated in 1371 after rebuilding and renovated in the second half of the 16th Century and again in the mid-18th, when it acquired new altars. The portico along the side (visible in the photo left) is by Michele Sanmicheli and was donated by Giovanni Stucky in 1883. It dates from 1596 and was actually designed as the choir of the church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, which was demolished to make way for the Stucky mill (now a swanky hotel) nearby. Interior Retains its Veneto-Byzantine form despite later restorations and decoration, with some columns and capitals dating from the 11th Century. A visit A surprising interior which has an old shell below, with old columns, that contrasts strongly with the flouncy rococo decoration above - all white, pale green and gilding. This effect is accentuated by the plaster on the lower part of the walls having been mostly chipped away to reveal the rough brickwork. The paintings around the chancel are uninspiring works by some followers of Veronese. The art highlight is Saint Roch and the Angel by Vivarini (which was the central panel of a triptych, the info in the church tells us) with a lunette above of The Virgin and Child. This sheet of facts also tells us that The Birth of Christ and The Adoration of the Magi by Marieschi are 'no longer in place' and that the ceiling panels are by Giambattista Canal, a follower of Tiepolo. There's also a Morleiter statue of the Pieta, where the body of Christ rests on a rock rather than in the usual maternal lap. The Doric portico which faces onto the Giudecca Canal was recently restored, but still looks very grubby. Art highlights Ceiling frescoes by Giambattista Canal. Altarpiece by Bartolomeo Vivarini (below left). Campanile 10m (33ft) electromechanical bells The current tower dates from the mid-18th Century, restored in 1883. A drawing by Canaletto of around 1730 shows it once had a taller one with a sugar-loaf spire. As does a detail from a map of 1635 (below). Opening times Mon-Sat: 8.00-12.00 and 3.00-5.00 Sun 3.00-7.00 Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
Santa Croce Maestro Pellegrini 1508-15
History The church and convent were founded in the 13th Century. Eufamia Giustiniani, an abbess here, was made a saint in 1465. She was also the niece of Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first patriarch of Venice. While she was abbess only four nuns died in the plague of 1446 and a knight who turned up at the door and asked for water was later identified as having been St Sebastian, so the well here was renamed after him and the waters were said to have miraculous powers. The church was rebuilt 1508-15, with a façade in the Tuscan style by an architect going by the name of Maestro Pellegrini. The church and convent were suppressed in 1806 with the nuns moving to San Zaccaria and the complex becoming a prison. Quite recently restored but still closed, although one guide book says it's being used by an old people's home. It didn't look to have been restored or cared for, or to be lived in, when I waded through the weeds and took the photo in late 2008. Vaporetto Redentore
Santi Cosma e Damiano Mauro Codussi? 1498
		History A convent was established here in 1481 by a Benedictine nun called Marina Celsi, who had been abbess at San Matteo on Murano and of Sant'Eufamia on Mazzorbo. The first stone was laid in 1491, with work completed in 1498. Consecrated in 1583, it is said that Mauro Codussi may have had a hand in the design, he having been working at the time on San Michele in Isola and San Zaccaria, also for Benedictines. Upon suppression by Napoleon in 1806 the nuns moved to San Zaccaria. The church became a storehouse, a barracks, and in 1887 a hospice for cholera victims. Sold in 1897 to the Herion Brothers who converted it into a textile factory, which it remained until the 1970s. Restored quite recently for use as an enterprise centre offering office space to small businesses. Lost art Giambattista Tiepolo's Punishment of the Serpent now in the Accademia - the long thin painting in Room 11 that was left rolled up for 60 years (and boy does it look like it was too) - was originally displayed under the choir of this church. The church also housed the Tintoretto Madonna in Glory, also to be found in the Accademia. Cloisters Once used by the military, later as a hostel for the homeless. Currently being used as studio space by an art foundation. The church in art The church appears in Giudecca, a watercolour by John Singer Sargent and was sketched by Turner, appearing in his sketchbooks in the Tate Gallery in London. Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
Le Zitelle Andrea Palladio/Jacopo Bozzetto 1581-88
History The church of Santa Maria della Presentazione is better known as Le Zitelle, or The Spinsters, since the convent here ran a hospice (founded by a group of Venetian noblewomen in 1559) for 'beautiful girls' from poor families whose beauty was thought to put them in danger of falling into prostitution. A prevention regime, as opposed the Convertite's concentration on helping fallen women. So the most attractive poor young virgins were taken in and were trained in lace and music making. The church was designed by Palladio around 1576 for a different site and built by Jacopo Bozzetto from 1581-88. The church The Palladian façade is flanked by the wings of the convent. The buildings extend around the back and a cloister sits behind the church. The convent is now a luxury hotel. Art highlights Palma il Giovane is represented as is Francesco Bassano, one of the four sons of the better known Jacopo. The church in art The Giudecca with the Zitelle (right) by Franceso Guardi, in the National Gallery in London. Opening times For mass only: Sundays 10.00-12.00 Vaporetto Zitelle