Chiese di Venezia
Chiese di Venezia
description of the itinerary
Una giornata alla scoperta delle chiese e delle basiliche più famose di Venezia
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Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari view hide
The Basilica of Santa Maria dei Frari represents - after the Basilica of San Marco - the most remarkable religious complex in the city of Venice and one of the most significant Franciscan foundation in Italy. Built between 1250 and 1338, by the Franciscan Conventual Friars, it was rebuilt in the fourteenth century, perhaps on a draft of friar Scipione Bon, in a more grandious form and in Gothic-Cistercian style, with three naves and seven apsidal chapels. The Basilica, during the centuries, has turned into an incredible treasure chest of works of art of exceptional importance and value, expressing the devotion to Venice from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century.
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Santa Maria dei Miracoli Church view hide
The church of Miracles is a very unique church, from a historical-artistic point of view, aswell as, for the Venetians, from a “sentimental” point of view. Unlike all other churches in the city, the church of Miracles was founded recently, designed, built and decorated by a single artist, as shown by the several overlapping of styles. It is a masterpiece of Peter Lombardo and the architecture recalls to the first Venetian Renaissance, similar in unity to an extraordinary carved casket and covered with coloured marble. It was built between 1481 and 1489 to preserve an image of the Virgin and Child between two Saints which had been called miraculous. The facade leads to a Florentine Renaissance style, but the colour decoration responds well to the typical venetian taste. The interior, a single nave with a raised presbytery, is decorated even more sumptuously with sculpted marble.
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San Polo Church view hide
Founded in the ninth century, the church of San Polo endured, over the centuries, two major restructuring projects, which modified the original Byzantine appearance: the first, in the 15th century, with the transformation on the basis of the late Gothic style; the second modification occurred in 1804, by David Rossi, who transformed the church in neoclassical style. Extensive restoration has recently revealed the Gothic survivors within this neo-classical super-structure: these include the wooden ceiling, the presbytery and the single windows on the facade (part of the 9th-century church)
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San Giacomo dall'Orio Church view hide
The church of San Giacomo dall'Orio, founded in the ninth century, is one of the oldest churches in Venice. Its present form, a Latin cross with three nave and a transept, is the result of a reconstruction began in 1225 and subsequent changes in the XV and XVI century. The great charm of this church lies in a sombre and archaic exterior, enclosing an ingeniously articulated interior, which is dominated by the warm presence of wooden beams and wooden ceiling. In the reconstruction of 1225 Byzantine elements have been traced (taken from the back to the Fourth Crusade), such as the column of green marble with Ionic capitals, praised by John Ruskin and by Gabriele d'Annunzio. The church retains, also, some masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance painting.
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Madonna dell'Orto Church view hide
The monumental church of the Madonna dell'Orto stands on the far northern edge of the Sestiere of Cannaregio, in a churchyard, which still preserves the ancient terra cotta flooring in a herring-bone pattern within Istrian stone division. Built in the XIV century and rebuilt, or strongly remodelled, in the fifteenth century, the church was dedicated to St. Christopher, but soon took its current popular name in honour of the miraculous image of the Virgin with Child found in a nearby garden (now preserved in the Chapel San Mauro).
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Santa Maria del Giglio Church view hide
The church of Santa Maria del Giglio, of ancient foundation (IX century.), owes its current ‘forms’ to the reconstruction occurred in the second half of the 17th century. The facade is one of the most original and sumptuous Venetian baroque works. The interior is made up of a single aisle, and the ceiling is decorated with large paintings by Antonio Zanchi. Worth noting is the painting by Peter Paul Rubens representing the Madonna and Child and St. John, the splendid Four Evangelists by Jacopo Tintoretto, as well as works by Alessandro Vittoria, Sebastiano Ricci, Giambattista Piazzetta, Jacopo Palma and Gian Maria Morlaiter, which make this church an extraordinary ‘document’ of Venetian art.
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Santissimo Redentore Church view hide
The Church of the Redentore is one of the most famous and venerated churches in Venice and the centrepiece of this city’s most popular feasts (celebrated on the third Sunday of July). It was set up on the initiative of the Senate in 1577 to honour a vow made during the terrible plague of 1575-77. The work, commissioned to Andrea Palladio, is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance and was finished, after the death of the notorious architect, by his foreman Antonio da Ponte, who faithfully respected the Palladian project. The facade, which emanates charm, has the typical Palladian composition, with broken pediments and half columns united by a horizontal band. The interior, plastered in white, has the typical simplicity of the classical temples.
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San Giobbe Church view hide
The church of St. Job, owes its charitable foundation to the will of the priest John Contarini, who in 1378, built a hospice for the poor with an oratory dedicated to St. Job Prophet. The present building was designed by the architect Peter Lombardo and represents one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in Venice, with clear influences from Tuscany. These find their maximum expression in the Martini Chapel, whose domed vault with glazed terracotta decorations is attributed to Luca della Robbia. It is made up of vivacious chromatics of the Eternal Father surrounded by the Four Evangelists. The right side of the church opens to the Contarini Chapel.
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Santo Stefano Church view hide
After the Frari and the Church of Saint Giovanni and Paolo, Santo Stefano is the third largest monastery church in Venice. Built by the Hermits of St. Augustine in the 13th century, it was rebuilt a century later, and subsequent embellishments made it one of the finest examples of Venetian Flamboyant Gothic architecture. The fourteenth century brick facade shows the superb marble portal, designed by Bartolomeo Bon. The interior has three aisles, divided by robust columns ending in elegant Gothic arches. The roof is particularly striking, whilst the Presbytery holds fine Choirstalls in inlaid wood dating from 1488. The Sacristy contains a museum of works of some of the great names in Venetian Renaissance art
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Saint Mark's Basilica view hide
One of the main symbols of Venice, fulcrum of the religious and public life of the city, the Basilica di San Marco was founded in the IX century, to preserve the body of the Evangelist Mark, the patron of the city, stolen from Alexandria in 828. It is a superb example of Byzantine-Romanesque style and it reflects the various stages of construction, from the Roman-Byzantine elements of the sixteenth-century to the Gothic interventions. Restructured on several occasions, it took the typical profile of a Byzantine church, with a large central dome and other hemispherical domes. The facade, which opens on five portals, is decorated with precious marble and mosaics. The impressive interior is typically Byzantine: a Greek cross, three aisles, divided by colonnades and powerful arches which support the five domes covered with mosaics. The high altar, which contains the body of S. Marco, is supported by four columns made of alabaster from the XII century. The bell tower, next to the Basilica, was a time a beacon to mariners.
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agenda
- morning - Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
- morning - San Polo Church
- morning - San Giacomo dall'Orio Church
- morning - Saint Mark's Basilica
- morning - Santo Stefano Church
- afternoon - San Giobbe Church
- afternoon - Santa Maria del Giglio Church
- afternoon - Santissimo Redentore Church
- afternoon - Santa Maria dei Miracoli Church
- evening - Madonna dell'Orto Church
