Basilica di San Pietro di Castello Audio Guide

Tradition says a bishop named Magnus founded this church in the seventh century. Magnus was the bishop of Oderzo, and he had come to the Venetian lagoon. At that time there was no city here, only small communities scattered across marshy islands. In a vision, Saint Peter appeared to Magnus. He was to build a church on the spot where he saw oxen and sheep grazing side by side. Magnus found that spot and built the church. It was first dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus, and only later to Saint Peter. The island and the church share the name San Pietro di Castello. In 1120 a fire destroyed the church. The new building that replaced it was grander than the one before.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

Mauro Codussi rebuilt this bell tower in the 1480s, after lightning had damaged the earlier one. He used white Istrian stone and left it exposed on the outside. It was the first time this stone was seen in Venice. Tall arched openings break up the pale shaft near the top. On the seventeenth of October, 1822, lightning struck the tower again. The strike destroyed the top, a wooden dome covered in lead with a small lantern, and it was never rebuilt. The tower is often described as one of the most precarious in Venice.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

Andrea Palladio prepared a new design for this facade in 1558. It was his first commission in Venice, from Patriarch Vincenzo Diedo. Diedo died before the plans could be carried out, and Palladio withdrew. Work resumed in 1596 under Francesco Smeraldi, who built a less ambitious version of the design. The reason may have been a lack of money. The centre rises on four columns set against the wall, beneath a triangular pediment. Flanking it is a double broken pediment, a gable with its top cut open. The result is more restrained than other Palladian designs in Venice.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

For more than three hundred and fifty years, this church was the city's cathedral. In 1451 it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice. Yet it hardly played the dominant role a cathedral usually had. Saint Mark's, the church of the state, overshadowed it. It also stood some distance from the city's political and economic centre, and was inconveniently placed. The long nave, with its chequered floor, leads to a large dome over the crossing. That dome signals the church's religious importance. Gerolamo Grapiglia oversaw the work on the interiors from 1619. In 1807 Saint Mark's became Venice's official cathedral instead. After that, San Pietro was increasingly neglected.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

According to legend, this seat belonged to Saint Peter when he was bishop of Antioch. Legend adds that the Byzantine emperor Michael the Third gave it to the doge Pietro Tradonico. The stone itself tells a different story. The seat dates from the thirteenth century. Its backrest was cut from an ancient Islamic funerary stone, a grave marker. At the top, a rounded panel carries a star-like ornament. Below it runs a band of inscription in Kufic, an early angular Arabic script. The verses come from the Qur'an. One asks the Lord not to shame the faithful on the day of resurrection. Small round knobs crown the side posts, and the seat rests on a plain, box-like base. Another verse asks God for forgiveness and mercy.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

Baldassarre Longhena designed the high altar, and it dates from 1646. Clemente Molli carved it, including some of its statues. White statues gather around the altar, and red curtains hang on the walls at either side. A painted vault, crowded with figures on clouds, fills the space above. Red carpet covers the steps that climb toward it. The altar keeps the remains of Saint Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first Patriarch of Venice.

Photo: Effems · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Virgin and Child sit on a cloud in this altarpiece by Luca Giordano, painted in 1650. This painting hangs in the Vendramin chapel. The chapel is dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Vendramin and to Our Lady of Carmel. The architect Longhena also designed this chapel. In Catholic art, the Virgin is often shown interceding, or pleading on behalf of souls in Purgatory. Cherubs peer from the clouds around her, and more angels crowd the golden sky above. Below, in shadow, figures reach upward toward her. A bearded old man stretches out his arm, and a young woman clasps her hands.

Luca Giordano · Public domain

Firebombs damaged the church during the First World War. Only in the 1970s did conservation organisations step in, and the church was restored to its former condition. Its conservation is now managed through its membership of the Chorus Association of Venetian Churches. The church remains active today as a minor basilica and a parish church. Round arches frame the white tower rising above the roofs. Nothing of the earliest building survives except one fragment of mosaic, kept in a side chapel.

Photo: Qypchak · CC BY-SA 3.0