Description
The Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, known to all as the “Frari”, is a great Gothic brick church in the San Polo district. At 102 meters long, it is the second largest in Venice and holds masterpieces by Titian, Giovanni Bellini and Donatello, along with the tombs of Titian, Canova and Monteverdi.
The “Frari” are the friars: the Franciscans, who arrived here in the 1200s on marshy ground that they drained themselves. Today's church is the third, begun around 1330, because the first two kept becoming too small. It took more than a hundred years to finish, and it was consecrated in 1492.
On the high altar shines Titian's Assumption. In 1915 the colored glass of the apse was replaced with clear panes, precisely so that it could be seen better. A little further on is the Pesaro Altarpiece, another masterpiece by the same painter.
In the sacristy, a triptych by Giovanni Bellini with the Madonna and saints, still in its original frame. In a chapel beside the presbytery, a carved wooden St John the Baptist by Donatello, commissioned by the Florentines' Scuola.
In front of the high altar stands the friars' choir, with 124 carved stalls, finished in 1468 by the Vicentine woodcarvers Francesco and Marco Cozzi. It is the only great Italian church that has kept the choir closed off by a high wall in front of the high altar, as in the Middle Ages.
On either side of the presbytery are the monuments of Doges Niccolò Tron and Francesco Foscari, which mark the passage from Gothic to Renaissance.
In 1794 Antonio Canova prepared the model for Titian's funerary monument. The money was not found, and when Canova died in 1822 it was still a project. Then the story turned upside down.
Today in the Frari there is a marble pyramid with a funeral procession entering through a door: it is the monument to Canova, finished in 1827 by six pupils, and it holds his heart. Titian's, a triumphal arch, came afterward.
Inside, six columns on each side hold up pointed arches, and there are seventeen monumental altars. The doges are remembered by enormous monuments: besides Tron and Foscari, the tombs of many figures linked to Venice fill the aisles.
Don't miss
• Titian's Assumption.
• The Pesaro Altarpiece.
• Giovanni Bellini's triptych.
• Donatello's St John the Baptist.
• The friars' choir.
Did you know?
• Claudio Monteverdi, who died in Venice in 1643, is buried here too.
• The monument to Titian stands, according to tradition, where the painter was buried.
The “Frari” are the friars: the Franciscans, who arrived here in the 1200s on marshy ground that they drained themselves. Today's church is the third, begun around 1330, because the first two kept becoming too small. It took more than a hundred years to finish, and it was consecrated in 1492.
On the high altar shines Titian's Assumption. In 1915 the colored glass of the apse was replaced with clear panes, precisely so that it could be seen better. A little further on is the Pesaro Altarpiece, another masterpiece by the same painter.
In the sacristy, a triptych by Giovanni Bellini with the Madonna and saints, still in its original frame. In a chapel beside the presbytery, a carved wooden St John the Baptist by Donatello, commissioned by the Florentines' Scuola.
In front of the high altar stands the friars' choir, with 124 carved stalls, finished in 1468 by the Vicentine woodcarvers Francesco and Marco Cozzi. It is the only great Italian church that has kept the choir closed off by a high wall in front of the high altar, as in the Middle Ages.
On either side of the presbytery are the monuments of Doges Niccolò Tron and Francesco Foscari, which mark the passage from Gothic to Renaissance.
In 1794 Antonio Canova prepared the model for Titian's funerary monument. The money was not found, and when Canova died in 1822 it was still a project. Then the story turned upside down.
Today in the Frari there is a marble pyramid with a funeral procession entering through a door: it is the monument to Canova, finished in 1827 by six pupils, and it holds his heart. Titian's, a triumphal arch, came afterward.
Inside, six columns on each side hold up pointed arches, and there are seventeen monumental altars. The doges are remembered by enormous monuments: besides Tron and Foscari, the tombs of many figures linked to Venice fill the aisles.
Don't miss
• Titian's Assumption.
• The Pesaro Altarpiece.
• Giovanni Bellini's triptych.
• Donatello's St John the Baptist.
• The friars' choir.
Did you know?
• Claudio Monteverdi, who died in Venice in 1643, is buried here too.
• The monument to Titian stands, according to tradition, where the painter was buried.