San Zanipolo

The San Zanipolo. Photo by Giovanni dall'Orto 2 July 2006. Image published under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Italy License

The Basilica of San Zanipolo is the largest church in the Castello district of Venice.

The basilica is actually dedicated to Saint John and Saint Paul. However, their Italian names "Giovanni e Paolo" sound like Zanipolo when spoken quickly with a Venetian accent.

Doge Giacomo Tiepolo is said to have granted the Dominican Order  permission to construct a church on the site, then marshland, after watching a flock of white geese fly over it.

The first basilica was completed in the 1250's. It was demolished barely eighty years later in 1333. Work on the present church started in the same year but was not completed until 1430.

The nave of the San Zanipolo

The San Zanipolo is a huge red-brick Gothic creation, originally conceived as a communal place of worship for the entire population of Castello.

The nave possesses a cross-vaulted ceiling supported by an intricate arrangement of tied beams and stone pillars. The interior space has been increased through the removal of the original choir screens and stalls.

The San Zanipolo, as the principal church of Castello,  possesses a large collection of treasures.

The tomb of Pietro Mocenigo, San Zanipolo. Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, July 2, 2006. Image published under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Italy License

The magnificent tomb of Pietro Mocenigo (1481) is located immediately to the right of  Bartomoleo Bon's monumental Gothic doorway.

The Mocenigo family produced seven doges. Pietro, the second member of the family to hold this position, was doge between 1474 and 1476. He was Venice's most successful military commander, achieving impressive victories against both European rivals and the Ottoman Empire.

His tomb, designed  by Pietro Lombardo, was the first to incorporate a Roman triumphal arch. Although a Christian monument, the tomb unashamedly honours the deceased as if he were a deified Roman Emperor.

The marble monument is supported by a plinth, intricately decorated with bas-reliefs. Mocenigo, splendidly dressed as an admiral of the fleet, stands on his sarcophagus in the central arch, flanked by his lieutenants and carried in triumph by his men. The gesture and pose of the deceased is identical to that of the statue of the resurrected Jesus Christ which stands on the apex of the arch.

The tomb of Pietro Mocenigo is one of twenty-five funerary monuments to former doges in the San Zanipolo. All funerals of doges were held in the church from the 15th century onwards. Indeed, the basilica has been dubbed the "Pantheon of the Doges".

Pietro Lombardo also designed the tombs of Pasquale Malipiero and Nicolo Marcello in the north aisle and Alvise Diedo in the south aisle. The tomb of Andrea Vendramin by Tullio Lombardo, located by the north wall of the choir, is also particularly impressive.

The San Zanipolo also contains a monument to Marcantonio Brigadin, the Venetian commander of Cyprus who was captured and flogged to death by the Turks in 1571.

Sebastiano Venier, who avenged his death by trouncing the Turks at Lepanto later that year, is also honoured by a magnificent bronze statue at the eastern end of the church.

The San Zanipolo possesses many fine paintings. The Capella del Rosario was decorated with New Testament scenes by Veronese. The north aisle contains a Saint Jerome by Alessandro Vittoria and three saints by Antonio Vivarini.

The south transept houses a "Coronation of the Virgin" by Cima da Conegliano and a "Christ with Peter and Andrew" by Rocco Marconi. The San Domenico Chapel possesses a "Saint Dominic in Glory" by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.

The polyptych by Bellini, San Zanipolo, Venice

The most impressive work of art is the polyptych by Bellini in the south aisle (1465). The lower panels depict Vincent Ferrer, a sanctified Spanish priest, flanked by images of Saint Sebastian and Saint Christopher.

The San Zanipolo also contains a Byzantine statue, the Madonna della Pace, for which miraculous powers are claimed, and the relics (a foot) of Saint Catherine of Siena.

© 2006 LACT Limited. All rights reserved.

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