The Churches of Venice

Frari Baldassare Longhena, Jacopo Sansovino, Marco Cozzi, 1492
this church now has its own page
San Cassiano 13th-17th Centuries
History The first church here was said to have been an oratory built in 726. dedicated to Saint Cecilia and belonging to Benedictine nuns. Rebuildings followed in 926, 1106 (after the great fire, when it was made a parish church and changed its name), 1205 and 1350, with this church consecrated in 1376. Rebuilding in the early 17th century brought the church to its current internal appearance, this work finishing in 1663. A portico was demolished in the 19th century when the church acquired its current external appearance. 'Important' relics of Saints Cecilia and Cassian are kept here. The church Outside it just looks like a big box. The rio-facing façade misses its portico and is encroached on by adjoining buildings. It retains its Byzantine-era doorposts, possibly from the original church. Entry is usually now via the small side-door onto the campo. Interior The interior makes up for the lack of façade and the very plain exterior, being highly decorated but managing to stay this side of exhausting, despite having an ceiling-high altar by Meyring and Nardo, the first being responsible for the decoration of San Moise, the church that makes you say 'blimey!' His work here is relatively restrained, as are the rather splendid Venetian chandeliers. The use of pale colours generally lightens the interior, even the heavily-decorated ceiling, with its paintings by a Tiepolo-follower called Costantino Cedini, including one of Saint Cassian in Glory. The late Tintorettos here are exceptional too, with a Crucifixion, a Resurrection and the Descent Into Limbo ranged in sequence around the chancel, all commissioned by the Scuola del Santo Sacramento who had taken on responsibility for its decoration, and all restored in 1996. Saint John the Evangelist in the famous and unusual side-view Crucifixion (1568) even directs the Virgin's attention comic-strip-like into the next 'frame' - the Resurrection with Saints Cassian and Cecilia (1565) over the altar, which features Saint Cassian on the left and Saint Cecilia on the right, the church's previous dedicatee. Then in The Descent into Limbo (1568) Jesus harrows hell and frees Adam and a very sexy Eve, with the members of the commissioning confraternity peering from the darkness behind. Tintoretto's first studio had been in the Campo San Cassiano, from around 1537/8 to 1547. He had been born nearby and lived here for the first 30 years of his life. The nave of the church has three altars each side with three paintings between them, the best by Rocco Marconi, a John the Baptist with Saints Peter, Paul, Mark and Jerome looking more than a bit Bellini, of whom he was a pupil. You may have to ask, but access to the small chapel half way along the left hand wall is worth it, as it is an odd little jewel-box of a room - all marble and inlaid semi-precious stones. Commissioned in 1746 by Abbot Carlo del Medico it has an altarpiece (1763) and ceiling fresco by Giambattista Pitoni. It also contains an early-18th-century painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Cassian by Antonio Balestra, and yes those children are stabbing him with pens. Cassian of Imola was a teacher in the 4th century, martyred by his pupils using iron pens, used to write on wooden or wax writing tablets, which they also whacked him with. That this martyrdom was ordered by a judge (in punishment for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods) dilutes the cruelty a little, but the fact that two hundred of them joined in, some carving letters into his skin, does not. He became the patron saint of schoolteachers and in 1951 a congress of Italian shorthand-writers asked that he be made their patron saint too, a wish which Pope Pius XII granted. Campanile 43m (140 ft) electromechanical bells Its sturdiness suggests that it may have been built as a defensive tower and later acquired by the original church. Built in 1295 with a Gothic belfry added in 1350. Lost Art The San Cassiano Altarpiece by Antonello da Messina (1475/6) was commissioned by Pietro Bon, the Venetian counsel in Tunisia, and was housed in the old Gothic church here. Sansovino in 1581 describes it over the first altar on the right. It introduced oil painting to Venice, probably, and was influential in introducing the layout of the typical unified-space 'Venetian' altarpiece. But whether it influenced Giovanni Bellini, with its Flemish use of glazes, or whether it was influenced by Giovanni, is also debated. Arguments as to whether this painting or Bellini's lost Saint Catherine of Siena altarpiece from San Zanipolo was the first unified pala produced in Venice also still rage. As do arguments as to that work's influence on the San Cassiano altarpiece. It was dismembered in 1620, during the rebuilding - its disappearance is first mentioned in 1648 - later appearing in the collections of Venetian merchant Bartolomeo della Nave and the Duke of Hamilton. Five fragments reappeared in the collection of Archduke Leopold William in Brussels, attributed to Giovanni Bellini. In 1700 the three fragments that remain (there were originally eight saints) (see below right) found their way to Vienna, and are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The central Virgin Enthroned was identified by Berenson in 1917 as part of this altarpiece and the two other remaining fragments, showing Saints Nicholas of Bari and Lucy on the left and Saints Dominic and Ursula on the right, were found in the galleries depot in the 1920s. Engravings by Teniers of two further fragments exist Almost lost was the Tintoretto Crucifixion. In Venice in 1852 John Ruskin wrote a letter asking for £7000 from the National Gallery in London to acquire it 'for the nation'. The Tintoretto Marriage at Cana was included in the deal, for £5000. He never got the money and so the paintings remain in their Venetian churches. He presumably sold this shameful asset-stripping to his conscience because his opinion was that the Tintorettos were all that this church had going for it (see below). Ruskin wrote 'This church must on no account be missed, as it contains three Tintorets, of which one, the "Crucifixion," is among the finest in Europe. There is nothing worth notice in the building itself, except the jamb of an ancient door (left in the Renaissance building, facing the canal), which has been given among the examples of Byzantine jambs; and the traveller may therefore devote his entire attention to the three pictures in the chancel.' Of The Resurrection he says 'It is not a painting of the Resurrection, but of Roman Catholic saints thinking about the Resurrection'. And of the low viewpoint of the Crucifixion: 'The horizon is so low, that the spectator must fancy himself lying full length on the grass, or rather among the brambles and luxuriant weeds.' Henry James wrote in Italian Hours, that standing in front of Tintoretto's Crucifixion here... "It seemed to me that I had advanced to the uttermost limit of painting; that beyond this another art—inspired poetry—begins, and that Bellini, Veronese, Giorgione, and Titian, all joining hands and straining every muscle of their genius, reach forward not so far but that they leave a visible space in which Tintoret alone is master." Also that 'No painter ever had such breadth and such depth…Titian was assuredly a mighty poet, but Tintoret–well, Tintoret was almost a prophet'. Local colour In 1488 this church's entrance was ordered to be chained shut, and the porch of Santa Maria Mater Domini was sealed off, 'after the twenty-third hour' to 'stop sodomites using it as a meeting place'. Local pastry shops were also said to be dens of such iniquity. The funeral procession of Caterina Corner, the ex-Queen of Cypress, in 1509 started here and made its way over a bridge of boats to the church of Santi Apostoli where she was buried. Tintoretto was born in the parish of San Cassiano in 1519. His baptismal certificate was lost in a fire, but we can assume that he was baptised in this church and attended it in his childhood. Campo San Cassiano was the site of the first public opera house in the world which opened in 1637. It was demolished in 1812 having been badly damaged by several fires. The church in fiction The painting The Martyrdom of San Cassiano by Antonio Balestra features in the novel Lucifer's Shadow by David Hewson. Opening times Tuesday-Saturday 9.00-12.00 & 5.00-7.00 Vaporetto San Stae map
San Giacometto 11th Century
History Traditionally said to be the oldest church in Venice. An inscription on the left-hand pillar in the chancel says 421 but legend goes even further and claims that the church was consecrated at noon on the 21st March 421, this being the date that the republic used to celebrate as Venice's birthday, it being also supposedly the date of the Annunciation to Mary. Information about the rebuilding is vague. Nothing ancient remains - the current church was built sometime during the reign of Doge Domenico Selvo (1071-84) and consecrated in 1177 by Pope Alexander III. It survived the fire of 1514 which destroyed most of the market, but must have been damaged as it underwent considerable restoration in 1531 (according to a plaque by the entrance) and again in 1599-1601. This latter work improved the lighting and installed some heavy baroque altars, but the original mosaics were lost. The choir on the inside façade was removed in 1933. This has always been seen as the 'market church' and has altars dedicated to various guilds of merchants and craftsmen. A cross-shaped inscription from the 12th century on the outside of the apse (see below right) tells merchants to be honest in their dealings and precise in their weights. The church now hosts concerts where Vivaldi's Four Seasons are performed most nights. The church The façade is dominated by one of only two wooden Gothic church porches to remain intact in Venice (the other being at San Nicolò dei Mendicoli). It was restored in 1958. Also the large and ever-wrong 24-hour clock above the 17th century windows, which was put up in 1410 and restored in 1749. Above is the bell gable topped by a statue of Saint James. Interior Hemmed in by the market bustle, this is a dinky little Greek-Cross shaped church with a dome, some charm, but no great art. Most of the city's original 70 parish churches would probably have been this shape originally, if not this small. This one has had much reconstruction too, of course, but retains its original shape. The Greek marble columns with their Veneto-Byzantine capitals remain from the 11th-century church. Campanile The original was destroyed by fire in 1514. The current Roman-style tower was built in 1749. Under the bells is a Gothic relief of the Virgin and Child from the early 16th century. Ruskin wrote It has been grievously restored, but the pillars and capitals of its nave are certainly of the eleventh century; those of its portico are of good central gothic. E V Lucas wrote The little church of the market-place—the oldest in Venice—is S. Giacomo di Rialto, but I have never been able to find it open. Commerce now washes up on its walls and practically engulfs it. A garden is on its roof, and its clock has stopped permanently at four. From “A Wanderer in Venice” 1914. Lost art According Augustus Hare's guide book to Venice of 1904. In 1664 it possessed 'good pictures by Lanfrancus and Marcus Veccelli, old Titian's nephew and scholar'. Local colour Opposite the church you'll find (usually hidden behind piles of boxes and rotting vegetables) the 16th-century granite statue of Gobbo di Rialto (the Hunchback of Rialto) - a crouching naked bearded man supporting a flight of steps, bearing a plaque, up to the top of a granite column known as the Pietra del Bando (see right). The Republic's decrees where once read from this pedestal and men convicted of petty crimes would run the gauntlet of beatings naked from the similar Pietra del Bando in Piazza San Marco to this statue where the punishment would end when the criminal kissed the statue. Shakespeare is said to have named the clown Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice after the statue, sculpted in 1541 by Pietro da Salò. The church in art Canaletto's early San Giacomo di Rialto (see below left) is in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. There are also several later drawings by him, including one in the Courtauld Gallery in London, which vary the number of columns in the portico. Opening times Monday to Saturday: 9.00 to 5.00 Sundays: closed A (recently added) Chorus Church, but entry is still free, presumably because it's so small and dominated by the bright concert-ticket desk. Vaporetto San Silvestro or Rialto map
The old photo in the centre shows a strangely changed facade that I (and others) can find no documentary explanation for. The painting on the left is by Canaletto and shows that the church now looks much as it did in his time. With the coloured-in view to the right even closer to now, windows-wise. The etching below, also by Canaletto, is called Imaginary View of San Giacomo di Rialto and I include it merely to muddy the confusing waters further.
San Giovanni Elemosinario Antonio Abbondi (Scarpagnino) 1527-29
The church The name saint translates as Saint John the Almsgiver, the 7th-century Patriarch of Alexandria - his body is in the church of San Giovanni in Bragora over in Castello. Tradition claims that this church was founded in 966. The first record is dated 1051, but it calls the church 'ancient'. Rebuilt in 1167, and again in the 15th century, this old church was destroyed in the Rialto fire of 1514 and rebuilt by Scarpagnino (as part of his wider rebuilding commission after the fire) in 1527-29. It underwent much restoration recently and reopened in 2002 after having been closed for 20 years. Interior Greek-Cross shaped and classical in style, this church has a bright Pordenone-frescoed cupola (thought lost but rediscovered during the recent restoration) and a very mannerist-influenced altarpiece by him depicting Saints Sebastian, Roch and Catherine. Also a fine mid-period (c.1530) Titian altarpiece of the church's name saint (see right) which was returned from the Accademia following restoration in 1989-90 which removed 19th/20th century restoration overpaintings and varnish. It is to be found over the high altar, which was built in 1633 and dedicated to the Casteletti - the guild of lottery clerks. (The altarpiece lost its original arched top to fit this altar.) The local market guilds seem to have paid for most of the art and fittings here. Campanile 41m (133ft) manual bells Collapsed in 1071 and again in 1361. It was rebuilt 1398-1410, and again by Scarpagnino as part of the 1527-29 rebuilding. Originally topped by a dome and four pinnacles, it now has a hipped roof with pantiles. Ruskin wrote Said to contain a Titian and a Bonifazio. Of no other interest. Its campanile is the most interesting piece of central Gothic remaining comparatively intact in Venice. It stands on four detached piers; a greengrocer's shop in the space between them; the stable tower for its roof. There are three lovely bits of heraldry, carved on three square stones, on its side towards the Rialto. The Titian, only visible to me by the sacristan's single candle, seems languid and affected. Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.30 to 1.30 Sundays: closed A Chorus Church Vaporetto San Silvestro or Rialto map		Interior photo by David Orme
San Giovanni Evangelista Bernardino Maccaruzzi 1758-9
History Founded in 970 by the Badoer family. Rebuilt in 1443-75, restored in the late 16th century by Simone Sorella and again in 1758-9 by Bernardino Maccaruzzi. More work in the 19th century. The scuola was founded in 1261 (making it the third oldest after the scuole of Santa Maria della Carità and San Marco, founded the year before) and was housed in the church of Sant’Aponal until it moved in 1301 to this church and to an ospizio (asylum) building opposite, again at the expanse of the Badoer family. The scuola building too was rebuilt in the mid 15th century. It was suppressed by Napoleon in 1797, but a new confraternity was established in 1929 and thrives still. The screen spanning the campielo between the church and the scuola, completed around 1485, is usually attributed to Pietro Lombardo. Until the dissolution of the scuola it had doors. It features an eagle, the symbol of Saint John the Baptist in its semi-circular pediment - the original relief of the saint himself is now in the Berlin Museum. Interior The nave is rectangular and wider than deep with a deep sanctuary of two shallow vaulted domes. Either side of it are large art-highlight panels depicting The Last Supper by Marieschi and The Crucifixion by Domenico Tintoretto. Another by Domenico is the Saint John the Evangelist over the right-hand of the two shallow chapels flanking the apse. Another Marieschi is the panel on the ceiling. Also monuments over the doors to Giovanni Andrea and Angelo Badoer by Danese Cattaneo, a pupil of Sansovino. Down the right side are two deepish chapels. The Chapel of Lourdes is fenced and glitzy. The Chapel of Saint James has wooden pews and paneling continuing in style from the nave. The sacristy adjoining has rougher woodwork and a long and impressive Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist by Zampini. Also an altarpiece depicting The Bearing, the Crucifixion and the Deposition by Sustris. Lost art The Saint Ambrose Triptych, also known at the Polyptych of the Scuola dei Tagliapetra, signed and dated 1477, by Bartolomeo Vivarini is now in the Accademia. The members of the confraternity of stonecutters kneel at the feet of their patron saint Ambrose in the central panel, flanked in the side panels by Saints Louis and Peter on the left and Paul and Sebastian on the right. The polyptych was first recorded in the early 19th century when it was discovered in the meeting room of the Scuola next to Sant’ Aponal, to which they had moved in 1515, so it must have been on their altar here originally. The frame is lost. Campanile 30m (98ft) manual bells Also rebuilt by Maccaruzzi in 1759. The church in art The Offering of the Relic of the Cross to the members of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista by Lazzaro Bastiani is in the Accademia. It shows the old façade with its portico, before it was demolished. Courtyard of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista (1913), an oil painting by John Singer Sargent. An unusually (for him) uncropped view, it is a head-on view of the screen. It excludes the iron railings in front of the screen, but shows their stone bases. *Ruskin wrote (of the Scuola)* A fine example of the Byzantine Renaissance, mixed with remnants of good late Gothic. The little exterior cortile is sweet in feeling, and Lazari praises highly the work of the interior staircase. The Scuola has it's own entry now. Vaporetto San Toma Opening times The scuola and church are open to the public on odd, but previously announced, days from 9.30 - 17.00. Check their website for details and future open days. map
San Polo 15th Century
History This church, dedicated to the apostle Paul, was founded in 837 by the doges Pietro Tradonico and Orso Partecipazio and rebuilt in the 12th and 15th centuries. Some heavy-handed restoration, additions and losses (including a mosaic-covered chapel and a silver Byzantine altar-front) during work in 1804 by David Rossi were partly reversed in 1927 revealing, for example, the 15th-century wooden ship's keel roof and restoring the rose window which dates from the same period. The church The 15th-century work resulted in the gothic windows and the impressive south doorway by the Bon workshop that visitors enter from the busy calle. The façade is now hidden by the Oratorio del Crocifisso, but from the nearby Corte de Cafetier you can see the Gothic rose window with trefoil arches and irregular quatrefoils. The apse end faces onto Campo San Polo and has several carvings, including the 14th-century relief of The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Saints Peter and Paul (see photo far below right). Interior The ship's keel ceiling dominates San Polo's somewhat knocked-about interior. It's pleasingly rough and calm, and pretty dark at most times. To the left of the side door is a sweet small carved fragment, of the Presidio. Art highlights There are two Tintorettos - a dramatic Last Supper of 1574/5, commissioned by the church's Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento to hang over their banco here, and restored 2011/12; and an Assumption of 1575, which is more of a studio work. There are five by Palma Giovane in the big apse, and the chapel to the right is richly decorated with a nicely frescoed dome by Gioacchino Pozzoli. The chapel to the left has Paolo Veronese's Marriage of the Virgin (or Anna and Joachim) (see right) from c.1580 which has a 15th-century Byzantine Virgin and Child, called the Madonna di Loreto inset into it. There's a late work by Tiepolo senior, the much-restored Virgin Appearing to Saint John Nepomuk (see text below) from 1754 over the altar dedicated to the saint opposite the entrance door. More memorable is an impressive sequence of paintings of fourteen Stations of the Cross by Giandomenico Tiepolo, son of the more famous Giiambattista, in the Oratory of the Crucifix (see below right) built onto the old façade. The son seems to have rebelled against his father's exuberance in life and in his use of glowing colour in his art - these works are paler and much more melancholy than anything by his father. (Comparison can be made with The Virgin appears to Saint John of Nepomuk in the main church.) He painted them, whilst still in his early 20s, from 1747-49 and they are rare examples of his being allowed to work alone while his father was alive. Campanile 26m (85ft) manual bells Detached, an inscription says it was built in 1362, but it could well be older. The doorway features two carved lions, one with a snake in its mouth, the other with a human head in its paws (see below right). The latter is popularly thought to be a reference to the punishment of Doge Marin Faliero for his plotting against the Venetian Republic. Although it's also (and more often) said to represent the head of the condottiere Count Carmagnola, beheaded by the Republic in 1402. The well was restored in 1884 and the spire and belfry in 1909. Ruskin wrote Of no importance, except as an example of the advantages accruing from restoration. M. Lazari ways of it, "Before this church was modernized, its principal chapel was adorned with mosaics, and possessed a pala of silver gilt, of Byzantine workmanship, which is now lost." Local Florentine history Having come through the church and having left by the south door, on his way to visit his lover, Lorenzino de' Medici, along with his uncle Alessandro Soderini, were murdered in 1548 by two assassins. Lorenzino (also known as Lorenzaccio or bad Lorenzo, a nickname he acquired during his years of depravity and madness in Rome, which included the decapitation of classical statues). He had killed his cousin, an intimate friend and rival in depravity, Alessandro de' Medici, the short-reigning and unpopular first Duke of Florence seven years earlier. Cosimo I de' Medici, another cousin, but from a junior branch of the family, who had succeeded Alessandro as Duke, had dispatched the killers following Lorenzino's return from France, where he had taken refuge in the court of Francis I. Lorenzino was eventually tracked down by making enquiries of doctors who might have treated him, as he had had his finger mostly bitten off in the attack. More recent scholarship has suggested that the Emperor Charles V had sent the assassins, as Alessandro had been his son-in-law, the husband of his well-loved daughter Margaret. The attackers, called Francesco da Bibbona and Bebo da Volterra, fled the scene and took refuge in the church of Spirito Santo. Opening times Monday to Saturday: 10.30 - 1.30 and 2.30 - 5.00 Sundays: closed A Chorus Church Vaporetto San Toma or San Silvestro map Saint John of Nepomuk A national saint of Bohemia, he was the confessor to the Queen of Bohemia and for refusing to reveal secrets of her confession he was thrown from a bridge in Prague in 1393. He was canonised in 1729 and is the patron saint of silence, and also of protection from floods and calumnies. He is sometimes painted with a finger to his lips or a padlock on his mouth. In the painting here he 'consecrates his tongue' to the Virgin. There is a worn 18th-century statue of him on the fondamenta at the junction of the Grand Canal with the Cannaregio Canal. The saint is represented here because the church was given a Nepomuk relic by Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, in 1740, soon after the saint's canonisation. Giuseppe Filosi 1740
San Rocco Giovanni Scalfarotto 1725
History One of Venice's four plague churches, along with San Giobbe, San Sebastiano and the Salute, this church was built 1489-1508 by Pietro Bon for the Confraternity of San Rocco, along with the scuoletta to the right of the church's façade. The confraternity had been founded in the plague year of 1478 by a group of prominent families. It had thrived following its stealthy 'translation' of the saint's body from Volghera in 1485 by two monks, its mission being to help the poor and sick, particularly plague victims, and so this church was built to house these remains. This original church can be seen on the Barbari map and the engraving of the church by Carlevarijs (see below). Extensive rebuilding, occasioned by the danger of collapse, by Giovanni Scalfarotto from 1725, kept only the apse, the (repositioned) side door and a window from the Bon church. Following the plague of 1575/6 the Doge and Signoria would visit San Rocco on the saint's day to give thanks for his intercession. The church The façade was erected in 1765-71 by Giorgio Fossati and Bernardino Maccaruzzi to match the façade of the scuola. The statues flanking the doorway are by Giovanni Marchiori, who has more works inside, those above are by Gian Maria Morleiter. The statues depict four Venetian saints: Lorenzo Giustiani, the first patriarch of Venice; Gregorio Barbarigo, a bishop of Padua and a cardinal; Pietro Orseolo, doge from 976-978; and Gerardo Sagredo, who became a patron saint of Hungary. The side door and rose window are the work of Bon - the window had been on the façade, as can be seen in the prints below, but was moved around the side when the baroque façade was built. Both door and window were restored 2000-2001. Interior Aisleless, with two altars each side - all matching and separated by large panel paintings. The first altars, left and right, have altarpieces by Sebastiano Ricci. The six highlight Tintoretto works are in the choir, which has a painted ceiling and vault by Giuseppe Angeli. Tintoretto's Saint Roch Cures the Plague Victims, the first, is from 1549, and so while the Scuola was still bare of paintings, his fee was probably low, but accompanied by a promise of membership of the scuola. This is the painting which Vasari grudgingly admitted had 'some nude figures very well conceived and a dead body in foreshortening that is very beautiful'. Saint Roch in Prison Comforted by an Angel is later, dating to 1567, by which time Tintoretto was an established member and busy painter of the Scuola. Also by him on the south wall of the nave here is Christ at the Pool of Bethesda, painted in 1559 for the doors of a reliquary cabinet. It is opposite Saint Christopher and Saint Martin on Horseback by Pordenone, who had also frescoed the apse and cupola before he died in 1539 and Tintoretto took over. On the baroque high altar are the remains of Saint Roch himself, brought here in 1485, and a statue of him, the altar and statue both being by Bartolomeo Bon. Impressive large panels by Giovanni Antonio Fumiani on the left wall and the nave ceiling. Lost art Christ Carrying the Cross (see right) attributed to either Giorgione or (most commonly recently) Titian used to hang in this church but is now displayed in the Scuola. It is one of very few images with a miracle-working reputation to be attributed to a 'proper' artist. Vasari writes that Titian 'painted a picture of Christ with the Cross on His shoulder, and about His neck a cord that is drawn by a Hebrew; and that figure, which many have believed to be by the hand of Giorgione, is now the object of the greatest devotion in Venice, and has received in alms more crowns than Tiziano and Giorgione ever gained in all their lives.' The church in art In the early 18th century the church had no façade (from 1727 to c.1760) this being the time between the demolition of the old and unsafe façade and the construction of the new, and so the view-artists of the day tended to invent their own. The London National Gallery's Canaletto of The Feast Day of Saint Roch shows the authentic unfinished brick, as does his Scuola di San Rocco in the Woburn collection, but an earlier painting by him (now in an Italian private collection) is embellished with an imagined classical façade, further jazzed up by Visentini when he came to engrave it for the 1742 edition of his Prospectus Magni Canalis Venetiarum. Zucci in 1740 and Marieschi in 1742 went to town too (see below). The engraving of the church by Carlevarijs (see below right) is of the original church. Campanile 29m (94ft) manual bells Originally built by Bon in 1494, but not shown on the De Barbari map (see right). The Scuola has it's own entry now. Opening times Daily 9.30 - 11.30 & 3.00 - 5.00 €2 entry fee Vaporetto San Toma map
San Silvestro Lorenzo Santi/Giovanni Meduna 1836-43
History Founded in the 9th century, this church was rebuilt in the first half of the 15th, being consecrated in 1422 and incorporating the nearby oratory of Ognissanti. There was further rebuilding in the first half of the 17th century and then again, and more comprehensively, in 1836-43. A large part of the altar of Saint Joseph, including a cornice and three angels, had collapsed on the night before Easter Sunday 1820. Subsequent surveys showed that the church was in danger of falling down. Rebuilding began in 1836 to plans by Lorenzo Santi, and was continued by Giovanni Meduna, following Santi's death. Reconsecration took place in 1850. In 2010 the church was closed due to falling bits of ceiling. It then acquired the appearance of a building site, with barriers all around, netting under the ceiling inside, and the campanile sheathed in scaffolding, which work was finished by May 2016. Aside from the campanile no trace remains of the earlier structures, except for a column fragment with a capital of Veneto-Byzantine style built into the wall facing the Rio Terrà. The church The façade dates from 1909 and is the work of Giuseppe Sicher. A 17th-century statue of Saint Sylvester stands in the niche over the door. Through an iron gate to the right inside is the Scuola dei Mercanti di Vino, which has a chapel upstairs with 18th-century frescoes, depicting three episodes from the life of Saint Helena, by Gaspare Diziani, a pupil of Ricci. You'll need to ask the sacristan to let you in. The scuola of the mastellai (coopers) was once attached to this church too, but was destroyed around 1820. Interior A very unarchaic church mostly dating from the early 19th century when it was rebuilt in a relatively unembellished neoclassical style. It's big and has a flat ceiling painted to imitate coffering. Art highlights A lot of the paintings the church once contained have been lost, but there's still Tintoretto's late and impressive Baptism of Christ of 1580-82 (reinstalled after the 19th-century rebuilding, but not over its original altar, and restored in 2004). Opposite is an appealingly bright and Bellini-esque Saint Thomas Becket Enthroned by Girolamo da Santacroce from 1520, but with a couple more dingy flanking saints (John the Baptist and Francis) added in the 19th century by one Leonardo Gavagnin. Each of these paintings is the wrong size and shape for the spaces they inhabit, suggesting that their reinstallation into the rebuilt church was forced on the architect late in the process. Lost art Veronese's fine 1573 Adoration of the Kings (see right) now in the National Gallery in London, was painted for San Silvestro (for the Scuola di San Giuseppe - it hung to the left of their altar, which already had an altarpiece) where it remained until the 19th century rebuilding, after which it was found to be too big, or so the official account goes. The fruits of more recent investigations have suggested that the decorative plans post-rebuilding never included the Veronese and it seems that the fact of money being sorely needed, and that ecclesiastical fashions had changed, may have had more than a little bearing on the sale. During restoration work on this painting prior to the big Veronese exhibition at the National Gallery in 2014 small holes were found in the paint in a strip along the top, which turned out to have been cause by splashes of bat urine. Campanile 47m (153ft) manual bells Destroyed by an earthquake on 25th January 1347, rebuilt 1422, restored 1840. Hear the bells Ruskin wrote Of no importance in itself, but it contains two very interesting pictures: the first, a "St. Thomas of Canterbury with the Baptist and St. Francis," by Girolamo Santa Croce, a superb example of the Venetian religious school; the second by Tintoret, namely "Baptism of Christ". Local colour The artist Giorgione died in the house opposite the church door (no. 1022) (the Palazzo Valier) during the plague of 1510. He was said to have painted frescoes on the palazzo wall to advertise his skills, of which traces were still visible in the early 20th century. But Lorenzetti says that this is only the 'supposed abode' of the painter, who 'lived instead perhaps' at no. 1091 to the left. Opening times Monday - Saturday: 7.30-11.30, 4.00-6.00 Vaporetto San Silvestro map
San Tomà
History Dedicated to Saint Thomas the Apostle, the church was founded in 917 and restored in 1395. It was enlarged in 1508 with more work in 1652. The façade from the 1652 rebuilding, by Giuseppe Sardi, a pupil of Longhena, was replaced (as it was about to fall down) with a classical façade by Francesco Bognolo in 1742-55. In a city not unobsessed by holy relics, this church is said to have once had 10,000 saintly bits and a dozen intact holy corpses. It was a parish church until 1810 and taken over by Franciscan friars from 1835-1867. In 1970 the by then deconsecrated church was converted for use as a workshop for the restoration of paintings, specifically smaller works to take the strain off of San Gregorio, which had been converted for such use in 1968. Closed in 1984 for restoration and yet to reopen. Exterior On the left side of the church there's a marble relief of the Madonna della Misericordia probably taken from church of Santa Maria della Carita (now part of the Accademia Gallery) at the end of the 19th century. Above the side door on the Campiello del Piovan is the tomb of Giovanni Priuli of 1375 (see photo below right) which was moved here from inside the church when the façade was rebuilt in 1742. Interior A broad aisleless nave with a vaulted ceiling and six side altars. Ceiling fresco The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas by Vincenzo (son of the more famous Jacopo) Guarana. The sides of the apse have Saint Thomas and Saint Peter by Campagna. The Scuola di Calegheri (cobblers) had an altar, the second to the left, following the 17th-century rebuilding, into which the body of Aniano, patron saint of the scuola, was translated from the church of Santa Maria della Carità in 1793. Campanile The De Barbari map shows a detached brick tower from the 14th century. A 36ft high section of this tower remains, tilted and with its door below ground level. There's now a replacement Roman-style tower, restored in 1809. Lost art Palma il Giovane painted an altarpiece of Saint Mark Heals the Shoemaker Anianus around 1593. It was replaced by another panel showing Saint Mark Heals Saint Anianus (see right) by Giovanni Faccioli from 1789, which is now in the Sant’Apollonia Diocesan Museum. It was over the scuola's altar in this church. The Scuola di Calegheri (cobblers) built in 1446, the scuola having been founded in 1278, is opposite the church in Campo San Tomà. A carved lunette of the same subject by Pietro Lombardo is over the door to the scuola. The church in art Well, not really, but the (14th century?) campanile of San Tomà stands proud in the background of Canaletto's The Grand Canal, looking North from the Palazzo Rezzonico in the Woburn Collection. Opening times Never Vaporetto San Toma map
This 1703 print by Carlevarijs is presumably of San Toma's previous façade, but the caption says that the architect is Alessandro Tremignon. A good fight going on in the foreground, though.
Sant’Aponal 15th century
History Founded in 1034 by the Sciavola and Rampana familes from Ravenna, Sant'Apollinare being that city's patron saint and Sant'Aponal being the Venetian dialect version of his name. The first documentary evidence dates from 1060. The current church dates from a rebuilding of 1407. Restored with the interior remodelled in 1583, including the flat panelled ceiling, and again in 1791. It was a parish church until it was suppressed in 1810 by the French, who stripped it of its art and furnishings. It became a mill, a night refuge for the poor, and a prison for political detainees. The four ugly rectangular windows on the façade date from this period. Later it was sold by auction to Angelo Vianello who later sold it on to a group who had it reconsecrated and reopened for a short time in 1851 with five of its eight altars returned. Also the high altar, with the painting of The Martyrdom of Sant'Apollinare by Lattanzio Querena was taken from the church of Santa Giustina in Castello, which had been turned into a school. Restored in 1929 at which time the Renaissance doorway with sculptures by Antonio Rizzo that had adorned the church since 1841 was returned to the church of Sant'Elena. (It's still in place here in the late-19th century photo below right) The church was closed in 1984 and used as a store for marriage registers by the Venetian Comune. The church 15th century Gothic façade with large Istrian marble relief of the crucifixion from the late 14th century above the rose window. Reliefs above the door, which may have come from a demolished altar in the original church, show The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist under a Gothic arch and flanked by saints in spired niches (see right). The reliefs below the main figures are of The Agony in the Garden and Doubting Thomas and are dated 1294. This sculpture was installed when the doorway mentioned above was returned to Sant'Elena. The smaller separate relief above is of The Enthroned Virgin and Child and is early 16th century. Interior Said to have a single nave with a flat coffered ceiling, side altars by Vittoria, and the Baroque high altar taken from Santa Giustina, mentioned in History above. Art highlights? A Luca Giordano (maybe one of those in Lost art below) and Saint Ferdinand by Princess Victoria Hehenlohe are both mentioned in books. Lost art An altarpiece painted for the Stonecutters' Chapel by Andrea Schiavone is lost. The Massacre of the Innocents and The Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple both by Luca Giordano and both painted in 1674 are in the Sant’Apollonia Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art. The early, large (21 feet wide), asymmetric and panoramic Madonna of Mount Carmel giving the scapula to Saint Simon Stock, with Saint Teresa of Avila, the Blessed Albert of Vercelli, and the Prophet Elijah, by Giambattista Tiepolo (see below right) is now in the Brera in Milan. It was damaged by poor packaging on its travels to Paris following Napoleonic looting, and in 1880 was cut in two, but its halves were reunited and it was sewn back together by the Brera in 1948. Commissioned in 1721 for the left wall of the chapel here of the confraternity of the Suffragio del Carmine, situated to the left of the presbytery and belonging to the Molin family. The painting is visibly composed to be seen from the left, with the light falling on the Virgin and Child would have coincided with the light coming through the chapel's windows behind its altar. Campanile 50m (163 ft) manual bells Detached, Veneto-Byzantine and erected between the 12th and 13th centuries. Restored in the 15th century, which work added the cornice with arches and the drum. The base is decorated with 11th century bas-reliefs and paterae, which included one of the oldest representations of the Lion of Saint Mark - the so-called crab-lion (see right) - now in the Museo Correr. Opening times Never Vaporetto San Silvestro map