Venice Churches

Venice Welcome thanks to Chorus (Venice Churches Associations) invites you on a fascinating journey through 1000 years of art and history kept in an extraordinary museum - the churches of Venice. You will discover the masterpieces of the great artists working in the city down the centuries in the sites for which they were conceived and created. At the same time, you will discover a surprising Venice, made up of silent and secluded places, and become part of great project to restore the city's artistic heritage, with all proceeds going towards the restoration and maintenance of Venice's churches.

St. Mark's basilica majestically symbolizes the lagoon and enshrines the city's history. Possession of the saint's relics enabled the Republic to establish its authority, from 828 onward, over Grado and Aquileia. In 1063, under Doge Domenico Contarini, it was decided to rebuild the church on the same Greek cross plan as the previous one. In 1096 it was finished, but the decorative work continued until the beginning of the 19th century. The model had been furnished by the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople (536-46); five domes covering the crossing and each of the arms, supported by large piers linked by arches. The light was thus directed towards the centre of the basilica, leaving the side aisles in comparative shadow.
The first patron saint of Venice was St.Teodoro. In 828 St.Mark the Evangelist substituted him when two merchants smuggled his mortal remains back from Alessandria (Egypt). St.Mark's remains were initially buried in a chapel in the Doge's Palace but later a church was built that was to be his perpetual resting place. The church later suffered damage from fire and was modified many times to adapt to Venice's evolution of power and wealth. This simple church evolved into St.Mark's Basilica. The modifications to the Basilica continued on through an entire century, therefore the results of the construction exhibit a mixture of different styles.

The Frari's Basilica, temple of prayer and sacred art, is a church of considerable dimensions. As many other Franciscan churches, it was built spacious not for love of splendour, so contrary to the spirit of St. Francis, but in order to welcome the great number of believers wishing to listen to the evangelical message brought alive and real by the simple words and the edifying life of the " Saint of Assisi " and his disciples, made deeper by devotion, humility of heart and zeal of their behaviour.
Tiziano and Bellini are among the greatest artists who contributed to enrich the church with their important masterpieces.
However, we can get you to enjoy only part of its beauty, although we will make our best to offer you the main works exhibited, trying to show up their magnificence.

In 1630, over 50 years after the terrible plague of 1575-77, the disease gripped Venice once more. Doge Nicolò Contarini made a public vow to erect a church called the Salute, asking for the Virgin Mary’s divine intercession to rid the city of the plague. Eleven architects took part in the competition to build the church and the winner was Baldassarre Longhena. His design perfectly captured the grandiosity and magnificence that the Serenissima wanted: a church that exalted the Holy Virgin and the Republic at the same time.

From an urban and scenic viewpoint, the enormous church, situated where the Grand Canal flows into Saint Mark’s Basin, served to counterbalance the awesome domes of Saint Mark’s Basilica and further embellish the landscape.Externally the octagonal design is distinguished by architectural perspectives, the most grandiose of all being the main facade with its impressive portal, emphasised by the wide stairway leading to it.

The most impressive churches of Venice are those of the medieval mendicant orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans. The Dominican church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo in the Venetian dialect; founded in 1246 and consecrated in 1430), is of rose-coloured stone, its vast interior designed for the large congregations of urban poor whom it served. As a burial place, it was favoured by noble families; a number of doges lie there, commemorated by richly wrought sepulchral monuments. The church's altarpieces, painted by Titian and Giovanni Bellini, were partially destroyed in a fire in 1867.

The commemorative statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, a condottiere, or professional soldier, who had been employed by the Venetian republic was erected in 1496 in the Piazza SS. Giovanni e Paolo, in front of the church. In 1483 Verrocchio was commissioned by the Venetian government to undertake this bronze sculpture. At Verrocchio's death the model was not yet cast, and the work of casting and chasing, or polishing, was entrusted to the Venetian sculptor Alessandro Leopardi.

The name derives from a miraculous image of the Madonna who one scultore had placed in its house garden and that soon it began to being venerated from the inhabitants of sestriere. The church is fundamental stage in order to know the painting of Jacopo Robusti called the Tintoretto that here finally it was buried with the sons in the right chapel close to the main altar.
The construction engaged all the fifteenth century - changing an older building - and turning out one of the more typical structures of the Gotich Venice, as it demonstrates the tripartition of the facade.FThe niches are instead Of Romanesque derivation in which the statues of the Twelve Apostles are placeda work by Delle Masegne. Going up on the bridge of forehead to the church and turning the look it is instead possible to recognize the bell tower and the great infuence of the Arabic culture on the Venetian architecture.

Santa Maria dei Miracoli was built between 1481 and 1489 on a project by Pietro Lombardo with the aim of giving a worthy placing to the icon of the Virgin venerated since the 1408. Church became one of the best example of the Venetian Renaissance: coloured marbles, false colonnade on the walls, semicircular pediment... Interior has just one nave with a barrel-vault and is dominated by the big stair leading to the main altar totally decorated with statues by Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria and Nicolò di Pietro, while the vault is divided in fifthy coffers decorated with the prophets's faces, a work by Gerolamo Pennacchi's brother, Vincenzo dalle Destre and Lattanzio da Rimini.

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