The Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli

 

Santa Maria dei Miracoli, picture by Doggears, 20.09.2005

The Santa Maria dei Miracoli  is located amidst a maze of alleys in the Cannaregio district, a short distance from the Grand Canal.

The Santa Maria dei Miracoli, also known as the marble church, was designed by Pietro Lombardo and his two sons, Antonio and Tullio. It was completed in 1491.

The principal feature of the church is the semi-circular lunette which crowns a false logia of decorative windows and ionic columns. Two marble panels, also divided by columns, are located on either side of the main entrance. A sculpture of the Virgin and Child by Giorgio Lascaris is located on the semi-circular plinth above the doorway.

Semi-circular lunette and false loggia of the Santa Maria dei Miracoli. Picture by F.Bucher, 21.0.09.2005. Image published under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany License

The church was constructed as a shrine for a picture by Nicolo di Pietro entitled: "Virgin between two Saints" (1408). This painting, which was thought to possess supernatural powers, still hangs above the altar.

The cost of building the church was funded by the numerous pilgrims who flocked to view the miraculous painting, previously displayed in a nearby courtyard. They contributed a sufficiently large sum to enable a chancel and convent to be added to the original shrine.

The interior walls of the church are faced with pink, grey and white marble which appears luminous when exposed to direct sunlight. The doors are often left open in order to enhance this effect.

The barrel-vaulted ceiling, with fifty portraits of saints and prophets, was added in 1528.

Tullio Lombardo decorated the spandrels of the cupola with the emblems of the evangelists. He also carved the figures of the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis, Saint Clare, and the Archangel Gabriel on the balustrade between the single-aisled nave and the chancel.

The church has recently been restored after it almost collapsed in the late eighties. The ten year project, supervised by the Venetian architect Mario Piana, was completed in 1998.

The Santa Maria dei Miracoli is a popular Venetian wedding venue.

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