The first occasion of Palladio’s intervention in the Lagoon capital was the design of the new façade for the church of San Pietro in Castello, patriarchal cathedral of Venice. Palladio probably obtained this prestigious commission thanks to Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, who are recorded as the guarantors of the contract with the masons in January 1558. The death of the patron, the Patriarch Vincenzo Diedo, caused works to halt two years after they had begun, but they would resume at the end of the century under the direction of Franceso Smeraldi. The present façade, therefore, does not follow Palladio’s project exactly, but is faithful to its essential lines, in particular the fundamental theme of the intersection of a major order (corresponding to the nave) and a minor one (corresponding to the aisles), successfully realised at San Francesco della Vigna a few years later.