churches in san polo

7/29/2019 Churches in San Polo

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Churches in San Polo, Venezia

FrariBaldassare Longhena, Jacopo Sansovino, Marco Cozzi, 1492

History

The Franciscan friars (or Frari) came to Venice in 1222, but had no permanent homeuntil Doge Jacopo Tiepolo gave them some land in 1236, adjacent to the abandonedBenedictine abbey they were inhabiting. The church that they built in 1250, extendingthe abbey, was much smaller than the one we see today, and faced in the oppositedirection. The current church was begun in 1340, but work was slow - the old church

was still being used in 1415. But it was demolished shortly after this date to completethe East end of the nave. The new church was finished in 1442, and consecrated in1492. Its plan is attributed to Fra Scipione Bon, who has a tomb in the church. Themonastery dates from 1256, being renovated after a fire in 1390 and having twocloisters, one by Jacopo Sansovino and the other attributed to Andrea Palladio.

The churchThe exuberant, but brick-plain, Gothic faade contrasts with the more restrainedfaade on the Dominicans San Zanipolo, built at the same time. Stand in the campoat its north-eastern front the one with the canal running through it - to see thesequence of three entrances and three oculi windows (see photo below left) with thestout campanile rising above the middle one. In the Campo San Rocco at the otherend you can admire the Gothic apse, as you indulge in a gelati and listen to the

buskers. Its mouldings were said by Ruskin to be the source of similar designs on thePalazzo Ducale.

InteriorThe twelve huge round pillars between the nave and the aisles represent the apostles,

but the division of the nave and aisles is very unobtrusive, giving the impression of asingle space dissected up high by tie-beams. The tie-beams are there because of the

brick vaulting a dicey choice of material in a sinking city. And here the bricks havebeen painted to mask their humble nature. Dominating the centre of the church is thedark wood of the monumental monks choir (a rare survival in Venice) separatedfrom the nave by a carved marble screen, said to be the work of Pietro Lombardo. Thechoir stalls feature fine marquetry by Marco Cozzi, depicting views of an ideal city.The nave features some mighty overpowering tombs, the most exhausting being theone for Doge Giovanni Pesaro, designed by Longhena, with the four huge moors bent

under a weight of allegorical figures under a canopy of carved brocade. Thepyramidal tomb to Canova is a far calmer and lovelier thing, if not exactly unwackyeither. It's design was copied by his pupils from the memorial Canova created forMaria Christina, daughter of Empress Maria Theresia, in the Augustinerkirche in

Vienna (see photo below left). His heart is preserved in a barely-visible porphyry urnbehind the sinister open door, although the rest of him is buried in Possagno.Opposite is the tomb of Titian. According to the parish records of San Canciano hedied in August 1576 of a fever, but it was probably the plague. He was buried heredespite funeral services being prohibited during times of plague for fear of contagion.The tomb was built in the 19th Century.

From the Chapter House, beyond the Sacristy, its possible to glimpse the Cloister ofthe Holy Trinity, one of the two cloisters of the original convent which have housed


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the Venetian state archives since 1814 (after a period, post-suppression, of use as abarracks). The other is called the Cloister of St Anthony and both are unfortunatelyusually closed to visitors.

Art highlights

Claims are often made for the Frari as almost a museum of Renaissance art in Venice,and it certainly contains some of the finest church art in town.

TitiansAssumption over the main altar dominates the church, and is said to be thelargest altarpiece in Venice. Ruskin said that this painting was 'not one whit the

better for being either large or gaudy in colour' and complained of its excess of 'foxcolour.' The friars who commissioned it had their doubts too - telling Titian that hisapostles were too big - but they stopped complaining when Charles V expressed aninterest in buying it. It spent some time during the nineteenth century as thehighlight of the Accademia gallery before returning here after the First World War.

Along with this early triumph - it was one of Titian's first altarpieces - there's the

slightly later and much quieter, but no less impressive Pesaro altarpiece, whichRuskin thought to be the artist's best work in Venice. These career highlights, along

with the painters tomb, gives rise to this being known as Titians church.

In the Sacristy theres also a Giovanni Bellini altarpiece to contemplate at length, aVirgin and Child with Saints (also known as the Frari Madonna). It has that samepower to calm as his later altarpiece in San Zaccaria, despite a somewhatoverpowering frame, probably designed by Bellini himself and carved by Jacopo daFaenza, and a bit too much distance between it and us. Bellini was reputedly just notgood at painting movement, which 'limitation' gives us something to rest in front of(chairs are provided) after his pupil Titians more kinetic works. The Sacristy was the

Pesaro family chapel when, in 1478, Pietro Pesaro's sons commissioned Bellini topaint the altarpiece in honour of their mother, Francescina Tron. The two saints arethe son's namesakes.

Two sculptures of John the Baptist, one by Donatello and the other by Sansovino, areequally impressive, as are works by Bartolomeo Vivarini (including his last, in the lastlateral chapel to the right of the altar) and his nephew Alvise (whose final work is to

be found in the first lateral chapel from the left).

Campanile 69m (224 ft) electromechanical bellsWork on it began in 1361, to a design by Jacopo Celaga, and completed by his son

Pietro Paolo in 1396. It still looks like it did on the Barbari map (see left). It's amongstthe tallest in Venice (being as tall as San Franceso della Vigna's). Restored in 1871after subsidence, with the foundations further reinforced in 1903. The three-light

belfry is surmounted by an Istrian-stone balustrade and an octagonal drum.

The church (not) in artCanaletto never painted the Frari.

Opening timesMonday to Saturday: 9.00 to 6.00Sundays: 1.00 to 6.00

A Chorus ChurchVaporetto San Toma
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San Cassiano13th-17th Centuries

HistoryThe first church here was said to have been an oratory built in 726 and dedicated to StCecilia. Rebuildings followed in 926, 1106 (after the fire), 1205 and 1350, with thischurch consecrated in 1376. Rebuilding in the early 17th Century to its currentinternal appearance, this work finishing in 1663. The portico was demolished in the19th Century when the church acquired its external appearance.

The churchOutside it just looks like a big box. The rio-facing faade misses its portico and isencroached on by buildings. It retains its Byzantine-era doorposts, possibly from theoriginal church. Entry is usually now via the small side-door onto the campo.

A visitThe church has no faade and a very plain exterior (see above right) but makes up forthis inside. The interior is highly decorated but manages to stay this side ofexhausting, despite having an altar by Meyring and Nardo, the first being responsiblefor the decoration of San Moise, the church that makes you say 'blimey!' His workhere is relatively restrained as are the rather splendid Venetian chandeliers. The useof pale colours generally lightens the interior, even the heavily decorated ceiling, withits paintings by a Tiepolo-follower called Costantino Cedini, including one ofSanCassiano in Glory. Even the Tintorettos here are likeable and exceptional, with aCrucifixion, Resurrection and Descent Into Limbo ranged in sequence around the

chancel. St John in the famous and superior Crucifixion even gestures comic-strip-like into the next 'frame' - theResurrection over the altar. Then in The Descent into

Limbo Jesus meets up with Adam and a very sexy Eve. I had to ask, but access to thesmall chapel half way along the left hand wall is worth it as it is an odd little jewel-boxof 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 GiambattistaPitoni. It also contains an early 18th Century painting of the Martyrdom of SanCassiano by Antonio Balestra, and yes those children are hacking at him and stabbinghim with pens. He was a teacher martyred by his pupils using pens, and so is now thepatron saint of schoolteachers.

Lost ArtThe San Cassiano Altarpiece by Antonello da Messina was commissioned by PietroBon and was housed in the old Gothic church. It brought oil painting to Venice,probably, and was massively influential in introducing the layout of the typical'Venetian' altarpiece. It disappeared sometime in the early part of the 17th Century -the disappearance is first mentioned in 1648. The painting reappeared in thecollection of Archduke Leopold William in Brussels, attributed to Giovanni Bellini. In1700the three fragments that remain(there were originally eight saints)(see belowright) found their way to Vienna, and are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

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 thenation'. The TintorettoMarriage at Cana was included in the deal, for 5000. He


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never got the money and so the paintings remain in their Venetian churches. Hepresumably sold this shameful asset-stripping to his conscience because his opinion

was that the Tintorettos were all the church had going for it (see below).

Campanile 43m (140 ft) electromechanical bells

It's sturdiness suggests that it may originally have been a defensive tower acquired bythe original church. Rebuilt 1295 with a Gothic belfry added 1350.

Ruskin saysThis church must on no account be missed, as it contains three Tintorets, of whichone, the "Crucifixion," is among the finest in Europe. There is nothing worth noticein the building itself, except the jamb of an ancient door (left in the Renaissancebuilding, facing the canal), which has been given among the examples of Byzantine

jambs; and the traveller may therefore devote his entire attention to the threepictures in the chancel.

Local colourIn 1488 this church's entrance was ordered to be chained shut, and the porch ofSantaMaria Mater Domini was sealed off, 'after the twenty-third hour' to 'stop sodomitesusing it as a meeting place'. Local pastry shops were also said to be dens of suchiniquity.

The funeral procession of Caterina Corner, the ex-Queen of Cypress, in 1509 startedhere and made its way over a bridge of boats to the church ofSanti Apostoli whereshe was buried.

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 severalfires.

The church in fictionThe painting The Martyrdom of San Cassiano by Antonio Balestra features in thenovelLucifer's Shadow by David Hewson.

Opening timesTuesday-Saturday 9.00-12.00 & 5.00-7.00

Vaporetto San Stae
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San Giacometto11th Century

The symbolic site of Venice's birth.

HistoryTraditionally said to be the oldest church in Venice - an inscription on the left-handpillar in the chancel says 421. Legend goes even further and claims that the church

was consecrated at noon on the 21st March 421, this being the date that the republicused to celebrate as Venice's birthday. It's also supposedly the date of The

Annunciation. Information about the rebuilding is vague. The current church wasbuilt sometime during the reign of Doge Domenico Selvo (1071-84) andreconsecrated in 1177. 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 workimproved the lighting and installed some heavy baroque altars, but the originalmosaics were lost. The choir on the inside faade was removed in 1933. This hasalways been seen as the 'market church' and has altars dedicated to various guilds ofmerchants and craftsmen. An cross-shaped inscription from the 12th Century on theoutside of the apse (below left) tells merchants to be honest in their dealings andprecise in their weights. The church now hosts concerts where Vivaldi'sFour Seasonsis performed most nights.

The churchFaade dominated by one of only two wooden Gothic church porches to remain intact

in Venice (the other being at San Nicol dei Mendicoli). It was restored in 1958. Alsothe large and ever-wrong 24-hour clock above the 17th Century windows, which wasput up in 1410 and restored in 1749.

A visitHemmed in by the market bustle. It's a dinky little Greek-Cross shaped church with acupola, some charm, but no great art. The Greek marble columns with their Veneto-Byzantine capitals remain from the 11th Century church.

CampanileThe 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 16thCentury.

Local colourOpposite the church you'll find (usually buried under a pile of boxes and rotting

vegetables) the 16th Century granite statue of Gobbo di Rialto (the Hunchback ofRialto) - a crouching figure supporting a flight of stairs and and a plaque ( see belowleft). The Republic's decrees where once read from this pedestal and men convicted ofpetty crimes would run the gauntlet of beatings naked from Piazza San Marco to thisstatue 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.
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The church in artCanaletto's San Giacomo di Rialto (see below) is in the Gemldegalerie, Dresden.

Opening times

Monday to Saturday: 9.30-12.00, 4.00-6.00

Vaporetto San Silvestro or Rialto


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San Giovanni ElemosinarioAntonio Abandi (Scarpagnino) 1527-29

The churchThe name saint translates as St John the Almsgiver, the Patriarch of Alexandria - his

body is in the church ofSan Giovanni in Bragora over in Castello. Tradition claimsthat this church was founded in the 9th or 10th Century. The first record is dated1050, 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 (aspart of his wider rebuilding commission after the fire) in 1527-29. It underwent muchrestoration recently and reopened in 2002 after having been closed for 20 years.

A visit

The church has no faade as it's hemmed in by shops. Interior is Greek-Cross shapedand classical in style. Has a bright Pordenone-frescoed cupola (thought lost butrediscovered during the recent restoration) and a very mannerist-influencedaltarpiece depicting saints. Also a fine late Titian altarpiece of the church's name saint

which was returned from the Accademia following the restoration. This is to be foundover the high altar, which was built in 1633 and dedicated to the Casteletti (the guildof lottery clerks). The local market guilds seem to have paid for most of the art andfittings here.

Campanile 41m (133ft) manual bellsCollapsed 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 fourpinnacles, it now has a hipped roof with pantiles.

Ruskin saidSaid to contain a Titian and a Bonifazio. Of no other interest. Its campanile is themost interesting piece of central Gothic remaining comparatively intact in Venice. Itstands on four detached piers; a greengrocer's shop in the space between them; thestable tower for its roof. There are three lovely bits of heraldry, carved on threesquare stones, on its side towards the Rialto. The Titian, only visible to me by thesacristan's single candle, seems languid and affected.

Opening timesMonday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00Sundays: closed

A Chorus Church

Vaporetto San Silvestro or Rialto
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San Giovanni EvangelistaBernardino Maccaruzzi 1758-9

A church very much overshadowed by its scuola, a gem of the renaissance admiredeven by Ruskin.

HistoryFounded in 970 by the Badoer family. Rebuilt in 1443-75, restored in late 16thCentury by Simone Sorella and again in 1758-9 by Bernardino Maccaruzzi. More

work in the 19th Century.

The Scuola was founded in 1211 and was housed in the church of SantAponal until itmoved in 1301 to this church and to an ospizio (asylum) building opposite, again atthe 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 wasestablished in 1857 and thrives still.

The screen spanning the campielo between the church and the scuola, created around1481, is usually attributed to Pietro Lombardo. It features an eagle, the symbol of StJohn the Baptist in its semi-circular pediment - the original relief of the saint himselfis now in the Berlin Museum.

InteriorContains sarcophagi of the Badoer family, a Domenico Tintoretto Crucifixion and

works by Marieschi.

Lost artThe famous sequence of nine paintings of The Miracles of the True Cross byCarpaccio, Gentile Bellini, and others, now in the Accademia gallery, were painted forthe Scuola here.

Campanile 30m (98ft) manual bellsAlso rebuilt by Maccaruzzi in 1759.

The church in art

Courtyard of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista (1913), an oil paintingby John Singer Sargent.An unusually (for him) uncropped view, it is a head-on viewof the screen. It excludes the iron railings in front of the screen, but shows their stone

bases.

Ruskin said (of the Scuola)A fine example of the Byzantine Renaissance, mixed with remnants of good lateGothic. The little exterior cortile is sweet in feeling, and Lazari praises highly thework of the interior staircase.

Vaporetto San Toma

Opening timesThe Scuola is open during events and concerts, and by arrangement.


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San Polo15th Century

A church that's 'seen life'.

HistoryThis church, dedicated to the Apostle Paul, was founded in 837 by the doges PietroTradonico and Orso Partecipazio and rebuilt in the 12th and 15th centuries. Someheavy-handed restoration, additions and Gothic losses in the early years of the 19thCentury by David Rossi were partly reversed in 1927 revealing, for example, the 15thCentury wooden ship's keel roof and restoring the rose window which dates from thesame period.

The church

The 15th century work resulted in the gothic windows and the impressive Southdoorway by the Bon workshop that visitors enter from the cramped and busy calle.The faade is now hidden by the Oratorio del Crocifisso, but from the nearby Corte deCafetier you can see the Gothic rose window with trefoil arches and irregularquatrefoils.

The apses face onto Campo San Polo and have several carvings, including the 14thCentury relief ofThe Enthroned Madonna and Child with St Peter and St Paul.

A visitThe ship's keel ceiling dominates San Polo's somewhat knocked-about seeming

interior. It's pleasingly rough and calm, and pretty dark at most times.

Art highlightsAside from a Veronese and a couple of Tintorettos, including a dramaticLast supper,there's five by Palma il Giovane, of course. A bit more memorable is an impressivesequence of paintings of fourteenStations of the Cross by Giandomenico Tiepolo, sonof the more famous Giambattista. The son seems to have rebelled against his father'sexuberance in life and his use of colour in his art - these works are paler and muchmore melancholy than anything by his dad. (Comparison can be made withGiambattista's 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. They are in the Oratory built onto theold faade.

Campanile 26m (85ft) manual bellsDetached, an inscription says it was built in 1362, but it could well be older. Thedoorway features two carved lions, one with a snake in its mouth, the other with ahuman head in its paws (see below right). The latter is popularly thought to be areference to the punishment of Doge Marin Faliero for his plotting against the

Venetian Rebublic. Although it's also (and more often) said to represent the head ofthe condotiere Count Carmagnola, beheaded by the Republic in 1402. The well wasrestored in 1884 and the spire and belfry in 1909.


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Local colourIn the calle between the campanile and the church doorway Lorenzino de'Medici(also known as Lorenzaccio or bad Lorenzino), along with his friend AlessandroSoderini, was murdered in 1546/48? by an assassin sent by his cousin Cosimode'Medici, Duke of Florence. His lover's house was nearby.

Opening timesMonday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00Sundays: closed

A Chorus Church

Vaporetto San Toma or San Silvestro

map

*Saint John of Nepomuk is a national saint of Bohemia. He was the confessor to theQueen of Bohemia and for refusing to reveal secrets of her confession he waschucked 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 issometimes 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 Centurystatue of him on the fondamenta at the junction of the Grand Canal with theCannaregio Canal.
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San SilvestroLorenzo Santi/Giovanni Meduna 1837-43

History

Founded in the 9th Century, this church was rebuilt in the first half of the 15th, beingconsecrated in 1422 and incorporating the nearby oratory of Ognissanti. There was afurther rebuilding in the first half of the 17th Century and then again, and morecompletely, in 1837-43, as the church was in danger of falling down, to plans byLorenzo Santi, with the work continued by Giovanni Meduna. No trace remains of theearlier structures, except for a column fragment with a capital of Veneto-Byzantinestyle built into the wall facing the Rio Terr.

The churchThe faade dates from 1909 and is the work of Giuseppe Sicher. A 17th Century statueof St Sylvester stands in a niche over the door. Through an iron grill to the right

inside is the Scuola dei Mercanti di Vino, which has a chapel upstairs with 18thCentury frescoes, depicting three episodes from the life of Saint Helena, by GaspareDiziani, a pupil of Ricci. You'll need to ask the sacristan to let you in. The scuola of themastellai (coopers) was once attached to this church too, but was destroyed around1820.

A visitA very unarchaic church mostly dating from the mid-19th Century when it was rebuiltin a relatively unembellished neoclassical style. It's big, neo-classical in style, and hasa flat ceiling painted with coffering. A lot of the paintings the church once containedhave been lost, but there's still Tintoretto'sBaptism of Christ(recently restored) and

opposite it an appealingly bright and Bellini-esque St Thomas a Becket Enthroned.It's by Girolamo da Santacroce from 1520, but with a couple more dingy flankingsaints (John the Baptist and Francis) added in the 19th Century by one LeonardoGavagnin. Each of these paintings is the wrong size and shape for the spaces theyinhabit, suggesting that they've been brought from elsewhere.(It turns out that theTintoretto came from a demolished altar in this church.)

Lost artVeronese's fine The Adoration of the Kings, now in the National Gallery in London,was painted for San Silvestro where it remained until the 19th century rebuilding,after which it was found to be too big.

Campanile 47m (153ft) manual bellsDestroyed by an earthquake on 25th January 1347, rebuilt 1422, restored 1840.Hear the bells

Local colourGiorgione died in the house opposite (no. 1022) (the Palazzo Valier) during theplague of 1510. He was said to have painted designs on the wall to advertise his skills.But Lorenzetti says that this is only the 'supposed abode' of the painter, who 'livedinstead perhaps' at no. 1091 to the left.

Opening timesUpdate May 2010 - church closed due to bits of falling ceiling. Services are being
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held in the sacristy on campo (see right and below). The campanile was sheathed inscaffolding too.

Monday - Saturday:7.30-11.30, 4.00-6.00

Vaporetto San Silvestro


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San Tom

HistoryDedicated to St Thomas the Apostle, the church was founded in 917 with money fromthe Miani family, and restored in 1395. It was enlarged in 1508 with more work in1652. The faade from the 1652 rebuilding, by Giuseppe Sardi, probably to a design byLonghena, was replaced (as it was about to fall down) with a classical faade byFrancesco Bognolo in 1742-55.

In a city not unobsessed by religious relics, this church is said to have once had10,000 saintly bits and a dozen intact holy corpses. Was a parish church until 1810and taken over by Minotite friars from 1835-1867. Closed in 1984 for restoration and

yet to reopen, although the scaffolding is long off.

ExteriorOn the left side of the church there's a marble relief of theMadonna della

Misericordia taken from convent of Santa Maria della Carita (now the AccademiaGallery). The side door on the Campiello del Piovan is decorated above the architrave

with a fragment of the Priuli tomb of 1375 (see photo below left.)

InteriorBroad aisleless nave with a vaulted ceiling and six side altars. Ceiling fresco The

Martyrdom of St Thomas by Vincenzo (son of the more famous Jacopo) Guarana.Sides of chancel haveSaint Thomas andSaint Peter by Campagna.

CampanileDe Barbari's map shows a squat detached brick tower from the 14th Century. A 36fthigh section remains, tilted and with its door below ground level. There's now areplacement Roman-style tower, restored in 1809.

Local interestThe 14th Century relief of the Madonna della Misericordia over the door of theScuola dei Calegheri e Zavatteri (shoemakers and cobblers) opposite the church camefrom the demolished church of Santa Maria dei Servi.

Opening times Never

Vaporetto San Toma
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SantAponal15th Century

HistoryFounded in 1034 by the Sciavola and Rampana familes from Ravenna,Sant'Appollinaire being that city's patron saint and Sant'Aponal being the Venetiandialect version of his name. The first documentary evidence dates from 1060. Thecurrent church dates from a rebuilding from 1407. Restored with interior remodelledin 1583, including the flat panelled ceiling, and again in 1791. A parish church until it

was suppressed in 1810 by the French, who stripped it of its art and furnishings. Itbecame a mill, a night refuge for the poor, and a prison for political detainees. Thefour ugly rectangular windows on the faade 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 thehigh altar, with the painting ofThe Martyrdom of Sant'Apollinareby LattanzioQuerena, was taken from the church ofSanta Giustinain Castello, which had beenturned into a school.

Restored in 1929 at which time the Renaissance doorway with sculptures by AntonioRizzo that had adorned the church since 1841 was returned to the church ofSant'Elena. Closed in 1984 and used as store for marriage registers by the VenetianCommune.

The church

15th Century Gothic faade with large marble relief of the crucifixion from the late14th Century above the rose window. Reliefs below the window (which may havecome from a demolished altar in the original church) show Christ with the Virgin andSt John the Baptist under a Gothic arch and flanked by saints in spired niches (seebelow right). The Reliefs below the main figures are ofThe Agony in the Garden and

Doubting Thomas and are dated 1294. The smaller separate relief is ofTheEnthroned Virgin and Childand is early 16th Century. This sculpture was allinstalled when the doorway mentioned above was returned to Sant'Elena, as was the14th century cross in Istrian stone above the circular window.

Interior

Said to have a single nave with a flat coffered ceiling, side altars by Vittoria, and theBaroque high altar taken from Santa Giustina.

Art highlights/Lost art?Luca Giordano The massacre of the innocents and Christ's expulsion of themerchants from the temple

Campanile 50m (163 ft) manual bellsDetached, Veneto-Byzantine and erected between the 12th and 13th century.Restored in the 15th Century, which work added the cornice with arches and thedrum. The base is decorated with 11th Century bas-reliefs and paterae, whichincluded one of the oldest representations of the Lion of St Mark - the so-called thecrab-lion (see below) now in the Museo Correr.
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16/16

Update: the whole tower was covered in scaffolding in September 2008. And stillscaff-clad in 2010.

Opening times Never

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