Description
The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore is Andrea Palladio's church on the island of San Giorgio, facing St. Mark's Square from across the basin: its white facade and bell tower, rising from the water, are part of the picture-postcard Venice.
The facade is an ancient temple in Istrian stone, with four large columns and a pediment, set in front of a second, lower facade. On either side of the entrance stand statues of Saint George and Saint Stephen. Farther out are the busts of two doges, Tribuno Memmo and Sebastiano Ziani, tied to the history of the monastery.
The interior has the grandeur of a Roman bath building: a long nave with a barrel vault, then the crossing with the dome and, beyond a row of columns, the choir.
In the chancel are two masterpieces by Tintoretto, the Last Supper and the Gathering of the Manna. On the high altar, a bronze group by Girolamo Campagna shows the four Evangelists holding up the world, and behind the altar the carved wooden choir stalls are one of the church's treasures.
The bell tower, about 75 meters tall, has an elevator: ride it to the top for a view over the historic center and the lagoon, with St. Mark's right in front of you. It was finished in 1791, after the previous one collapsed in 1774.
Palladio began the church in 1566 for the Benedictine monks who had lived on the island since 982 and who are still there. The model of the design impressed Giorgio Vasari on a visit to Venice, but Palladio did not live to see the church finished: the facade was built between 1597 and 1610.
The conclave of 1799–1800 was held on the island, and Pius VII was crowned pope in this very church. For the monastery's refectory, also by Palladio, Paolo Veronese painted The Wedding at Cana: Napoleon carried it off in 1797, and today it is in the Louvre.
The facade is an ancient temple in Istrian stone, with four large columns and a pediment, set in front of a second, lower facade. On either side of the entrance stand statues of Saint George and Saint Stephen. Farther out are the busts of two doges, Tribuno Memmo and Sebastiano Ziani, tied to the history of the monastery.
The interior has the grandeur of a Roman bath building: a long nave with a barrel vault, then the crossing with the dome and, beyond a row of columns, the choir.
In the chancel are two masterpieces by Tintoretto, the Last Supper and the Gathering of the Manna. On the high altar, a bronze group by Girolamo Campagna shows the four Evangelists holding up the world, and behind the altar the carved wooden choir stalls are one of the church's treasures.
The bell tower, about 75 meters tall, has an elevator: ride it to the top for a view over the historic center and the lagoon, with St. Mark's right in front of you. It was finished in 1791, after the previous one collapsed in 1774.
Palladio began the church in 1566 for the Benedictine monks who had lived on the island since 982 and who are still there. The model of the design impressed Giorgio Vasari on a visit to Venice, but Palladio did not live to see the church finished: the facade was built between 1597 and 1610.
The conclave of 1799–1800 was held on the island, and Pius VII was crowned pope in this very church. For the monastery's refectory, also by Palladio, Paolo Veronese painted The Wedding at Cana: Napoleon carried it off in 1797, and today it is in the Louvre.