Castello, Venice, Veneto, Italy

Castello is one of the six sestieri of Venice. Castello is the largest sestieri, located at the east end of Venice. As the only district not overlooking the Grand Canal, however, what is even more eye-catching is that this is the main venue of the famous Venice Biennale. Castello covers a large vibrant area, with one section bordering St. Mark’s Square and dotted with luxury hotels.

Sestiere Castello has a view on one side on the lagoon with San Pietro and Sant’Elena, and on the other side faces San Marco. In this sestiere there is also Riva degli Schiavoni, on of the largest fondamenta of the city, which extends from San Marco’s pond (near Palace Ducale) to Rio Ca’ di Dio. The Castello district is connected to that of Cannaregiothrough the bridge of Saints John and Paul which, in front of the homonymous basilica, crosses the Mendicanti river a few steps from the monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni del Verrocchio.

Castello is a place where you can enjoy a quieter side of Venice, away from the hustle and bustle of the main tourist hotspots. It is one of the greenest areas of Venice thanks to the Gardens and the island of Sant’Elena, which are characterized by the presence of trees, flowers and playgrounds for children. Inside this areas there are most of the sport’s facilites and a lorto of attractions. Farther from St. Mark’s, the neighborhood gets more laid-back, with casual bars where locals stop in for a glass of wine.

In alternating years, the Giardini della Biennale park hosts the Biennale exhibition of contemporary art. Discover the famous Arsenale and the Biennale di Venezia, and the cultural istitution that organizes the Venice Film Festival. After participating in the Art Biennale or Architecture Biennale, some works of art stay in this area permanently. Walking here, you can discover all kinds of sculptures, installations and decorative arts at any time.

Walking in the street of shopping of this sestiere, Via Garibaldi, where are sold various venetian masks made in the workshops of artisans around the district. Shops and eateries catering to all budgets line buzzing Via Garibaldi. A special treat of this sestiere is the bookshop AcquaAlta (literally High water), a very fascinating place. The books are put on unusual places like boats, gondole, canoes and tank that save the books in case of high tide.

History
Like the whole city of Venice, Castello was formed in the early Middle Ages from distinct settlements. There had been, since at least the 8th-century, small settlements of the islands of San Pietro di Castello. The name of the district derives from a fortification present in the early Middle Ages on the island of Olivolo. It was the seat of the first truly Venetian diocese and its cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, but it also had military importance as a fort was built there which was to rise where the arsenal is today.

Founded as the seat of a Byzantine exarchal command along the intra-coastal waterway that since the imperial age connected Ravenna with Aquileia, it was probably part of a more complex defensive system including a second castle at thePalazzo Ducale, as well as a wall – continued by an iron chain in water – erected by Doge Pietro Tribuno on the occasion of the invasion of the Hungarians.

Numerous documents of the 9th-10th century, mostly imperial privileges or literary sources, report detailed lists of the lagoon inhabited centers. A sign that it was now considered an integral part of the civitas Rivoalti which was expanding towards the east. Around the year 1000, if Rialto had assumed the role of business district and San Marco as the center of civil power, Olivolo-Castello represented, as well as the seat of the bishop, the industrial and port area of the nascent Venice.

From the thirteenth century onward, the district grew around a naval dockyard. The land in the district was dominated by the Arsenale of the Republic of Venice, then the largest naval complex in Europe. Other significant structures were by the monasteries in the north of the quarter.

A Greek mercantile community numbering around 5,000 in the Renaissance and late Middle Ages was based in this district, with the Flanginian School and the Greek Orthodox Church of San Giorgio dei Greci being located here, of which the former comprises the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice and the latter is now the seat of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy.

The bishopric until 1807, the year in which Napoleon moved it to the basilica of San Marco, until then the doge’s chapel and used only for special events. Napoleon closed the Arsenal and planned what are now the Bienniale Gardens. More recently the island of Sant’Elena has been created, and more land drained at other extremities of Castello.

Main Attractions
The Campo Santa Maria Formosa with two facades, a Baroque bell tower and several artworks inside, including the St. Barbara polyptych by Palma the Elder, one of the most celebrated work by this Venetian painter of the High Renaissance. Not far is Palazzo Grimani, originally the residence of the Venetian doge Antonio Grimani, a rare example of Renaissance palace.

Saints Giovanni and Paolo is one of the largest churches in Venice, and houses artworks by Lotto, Pietro Lombardo, and Bellini. The funerals of Venice’s doges were held here after the 15th century, it’s the site of resting place of many doges before the year 1000, located behind Piazza San Marco. To the north, the basilica of Saints John and Paul houses the tombs of numerous doges including Nicolò Marcello, Pietro Mocenigo, and Andrea Vendramin.

The Arsenale of Venice, now partly owned by the Navy, the strategic center of its power and a very important ship factory, was of literally vital importance for the Serenissima. This huge complex, part of which was designed and built by Sansovino, occupies a significant portion of the sestiere and approximately one sixth of the entire surface of the island’s city core.

On the side facing the southern part of the lagoon is the Riva degli Schiavoni, which takes its name from the Dalmatian merchants, then called Schiavonia, who moored their ships here and carried out their trade.

In this district there were two schools: the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni and the Scuola Grande di San Marco. The latter was adapted by Napoleon into a military hospital and today constitutes the main entrance to the city civil hospital of “Santi Giovanni e Paolo”, so called because it includes the ancient monastery that depended on the basilica of the same name.

Palaces and civil buildings

Palazzo Malipiero-Trevisan
Palazzo Malipiero-Trevisan is a Renaissance palace in Venice.The palace was the residence of the Malipiero family until the end of the 15th century when it passed, by marriage, to the Trevisan family. The setting of the symmetrical façade, which still preserves the original Istrian stone roof, is typically of the Venetian Renaissance architectural style. The building consists of three floors: a ground floor and two noble floors. The ground floor has two round-arched portals on the river; two noble floors of the same layout are decorated with quadriforas at the center. The quadriforas are decorated with sculpted parapets and flanked by pairs of single-light windows. To embellish and regulate the parts of the façade, there are niches and marble discs—the latter recalling the Gothic-Byzantine style typical for the nearby Palazzo Vitturi. Inside, on the second floor, there are frescoes painted in the 18th century, still in good condition.

Palazzo Vitturi
Palazzo Vitturi is a palace in Venice. Palazzo Vitturi is an ancient building, it was built in the second half of the 13th century, and over the centuries it has undergone several renovations that have not compromised its original structure. Today, in a good state of conservation, the building hosts a hotel. The facade of Palazzo Vitturi is of a Venetian-Byzantine style the 14th century and is decorated with Gothic and Moorish motifs. Of special interest are the openings and decorations of the second noble floor: a central quadrifora, flanked by two pairs of monoforas, over which original tiles and paterae are seen. The balustrades were added in 16-17th centuries. There are frescoes inside the main floor. The mezzanine has a small trifora in the center. The top floor, with its rectangular openings, dates back to the rest of the complex.

Great School of San Marco
The Scuola Grande di San Marco is a Renaissance building, located in the Castello district, founded by the school of the same name. The school was the seat of a brotherhood and was established in 1260, it had its first seat at the demolished church of Santa Croce. In the 16th century the façade towards the Rio dei Mendicanti was buil. Later it was transformed into a civil hospital, substantially altering the interior. The façade, a delicate composition of aedicules, Corinthian pilasters and statues in white and polychrome marble, is a Renaissance jewel. It is divided into two parts, corresponding to the lounge on the left and the hotel on the right. The marble decoration and the high reliefs in the lower part (two Marcian lions and stories of San Marco) are attributed to the Lombardo workshop. The main portal has a porch with columns resting on finely carved plinths. The archivolt has a high relief in the lunette generally attributed to Bartolomeo Bon, as well as the statue of Charity above. Codussi then built the façade of the hotel and the upper crowning with lunettes with statues.

Upstairs are the lounge and the hotel room, with splendid coffered ceilings with gilded finishes. They had a very rich pictorial decoration which, unlike what happened for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, was lost after the suppression of the brotherhood. Some canvases with stories of San Marco by Jacopo Palma the Elder, Jacopo Palma the Younger, Domenico Tintoretto, Nicolas Régnier, Vittore Belliniano and del Padovanino have been brought back to their original location. Other paintings with a similar subject by Jacopo Tintoretto (including the Miracle of San Marco), Paris Bordone, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giovanni Mansueti, are exhibited in the Gallerie dell’Accademia or the Pinacoteca di Brera.

School of San Giorgio degli Schiavoni
The Dàlmata School of Saints Giorgio and Trifone, also known as the School of San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, is a building in Venice located in the Castello district. Its interior is adorned with a series of important works of art, including a famous pictorial cycle by Vittore Carpaccio. At the beginning of the 16th century, the community erected the present site at its own expense, making use of the project by Giovanni De Zan for the Sansovinian- style facade. Outside, on the facade above the entrance, there is the relief of St. George killing the Dragon (1552) by Pietro da Salò and, above this, another relief of the Virgin enthroned between Saints John the Baptist and Catherine d ‘ Alexandria (mid-14th century) by a Venetian sculptor.

In addition to the famous Carpaccio pictorial cycle, over the centuries the rooms were enriched with various other paintings, decorations and ornaments. The ground room, with a rectangular plan and not large in size, was renovated in the mid- sixteenth century, when the canvases by Vittore Carpaccio, previously present on the upper floor, were placed. The room shows a particular ceiling with decorated beams and features, along the four walls of the room, some notable paintings from the cycle of Carpaccio paintings. In these works Carpaccio matured his language with greater certainty, which led him to paint freer and more varied compositions, with a use of dense and calculatedly harmonious color. Above the altar there is the altarpiece with the Madonna enthroned with the Child and angels, a work by some historians attributed to Benedetto Carpaccio, while by others to his father Vittore.

Hospital of Saints Peter and Paul
The hospital of Saints Peter and Paul was an institution based in Venice. Founded in the 11th century, it represented the oldest of the hospices opened in the city for pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. It was later used as a hospital for the care of the sick. In 1350 the complex was enlarged by incorporating some houses left by Francesco Avanzo. Other important transformations took place between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the restructuring of the church in 1736, and of the entire hospital. After the restoration in the years 1996 – 1999, the complex, passed to the Municipality of Venice, is used as a cultural center and student residence.

In the original building, only a valuable Gothic portal is preserved overlooking the foundations of San Gioachino: dating back to the fifteenth century, there is a sculpted Madonna with Child between Saints Peter and Paul.The church had three altars, of which the largest carried an altarpiece by Giuseppe Angeli (the Virgin and two apostles). By the same author were Christ in the garden and Christ carrying the cross, also in the oratory, and Crucifix, San Gerolamo Miani and two pilgrims, in the infirmary. All the works went missing.

Religious architecture

Basilica of Saints John and Paul
The Basilica of Saints John and Paul is one of the most impressive medieval religious buildings in Venice. It was built together with the adjacent church and was already finished in 1293. It was rebuilt by Baldassare Longhena between 1660 and 1675. The façade is unfinished but next to it is the beautiful façade of the former Scuola Grande di San Marco. It is considered the pantheon of Venice thanks to the large number of Venetian doges and other important figures who have been buried there since the thirteenth century.

Today it houses the Civil Hospital of Venice. It is articulated around two cloisters and a courtyard. To the east is the dormitory of the friars, crossed by a very long corridor on which the cells open. The interior is austere and airy. The Longhena staircase is characterized by magnificent marble inlays; the library still retains the beautiful wooden ceiling by Giacomo Piazzetta (1682), with paintings by Federico Cervelli. In the campo, in front of the church, there is the monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni, the work of Verrocchio and one of the greatest monuments of Renaissance statuary.

Church of San Zaccaria
The church of San Zaccaria is a place of worship catholic city of Venice. The church of San Zaccaria is located in the center of Venice, near Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace. Very ancient church dating back to the 9th century, at the origin of the city, it was a place closely linked to the archaic history of Venice. The current building was built between 1444 and 1515, in a style that mixes Gothic and Renaissance. The church with three naves, with cross vaults, has a tripartite facade with coupled columns and open by numerous windows, in decreasing number from bottom to top, dominated by the large arched tympanum surmounted by the statue of San Zaccaria.

Inside the tombs of many doges and works of considerable value including the polyptychs carved by Ludovico da Forlì and an altarpiece from 1505 by Bellini, Madonna enthroned with Child and saints and paintings depicting the Adoration of the Magi and the Adoration of the Shepherds. On the internal wall of the façade there are four works by Antonio Vassilacchi. In the lunettes on the walls, consisting of 8 works by Andrea Celesti,Giovanni Antonio Fumiani, Daniel Heintz, Antonio Zanchi, and Antonio Zonca, illustrates, a practically unique case, the historical and mythical events of the monastery and the church of San Zaccaria. At the left entrance of the ambulatory is the tomb of Alessandro Vittoria. The Chapel of St. Athanasius constituted the choir of the nuns. The Chapel of San Tarasio constituted the apse of the primitive church. The crypt accessed through the Chapel of San Tarasio. It was built between the 10th and 11th centuries and is divided into three naves by columns supporting cross vaults.

Church of S. Francesco della Vigna
The church of San Francesco della Vigna is a religious building in the city of Venice. In 1534 the church was built on the site of the monastery. It was designed by Sansovino. The façade was built at 1568-1577. Projected on a single floor the main nave, covered by a large tympanum, and the two lateral ones covered by two semitimpani, the compositional problem was constituted by the organic connection of the two systems and by the relationshipmodular of the two orders, the major called to hold the main tympanum and the minor the two semitimpani. Two bronze statues by Tiziano Aspetti are in the niches, in the facade: on the left there is a statue of Moses and on the right there is a statue of St. Paul.

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The interior of San Francesco della Vigna is a Latin cross with a central nave, side chapels, an altar and a deeper choir. The space of the aisles, initially marked only by isolated pillars with the function of supporting the arches. On the counter-façade there is a Madonna with Child on the right, a polychrome Byzantine relief from the 12th century, while on the left the Saints Jerome, Bernardino of Siena and Ludovico di Tolosa, a triptych by Antonio Vivarini, restored in 1982. The church in the background ends with a deep presbytery with a perfectly rectangular plan divided into two parts by an altar behind which there was the choir of the friars. The side chapels, which house illustrious burials, were decorated at the expense of the Venetian nobility.

Pietà Church
The Church of Mercy or St. Mary of the Visitation is a place of worship catholic city of Venice. The current church was built between 1745 and 1760, The facade, however, remained unfinished until the early twentieth century. The building is one of the most elegant and evocative of the 17th century, in the 18th century it housed an orphanage and a hospital. On the ceiling of the main entrance there is a wonderful fresco by Tiepolo: Fortitude Peace is one of his greatest masterpieces. Also noteworthy are the frescoes that adorn the vault of the choir, which make up the Triumph of Faith. Here Tiepolo excelled himself, painting the Glory of Heaven. The church is also known among classical music fans as the church where the Catholic priest and composer Antonio Vivaldi worked for most of his life.

The interior has an ovoid plan, characterized by two choirs with wrought iron grates, which develop along the side walls. The ceiling of the main entrance houses a fresco by Giambattista Tiepolo, The Fortress and Peace. On boths side there was two altars. The altar of the main chapel, in marble, is from the eighteenth century and is characterized by a rich Baroque tabernacle, surrounded by gilded bronze figures, made by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter (The Archangels Gabriel and Michael), Antonio Gai (San Marco) and Giovanni Marchiori (San Pietro). On the ceiling there is another fresco by Giambattista Tiepolo, The Theological Virtues, made between 1754 and 1755. Above the entrance door of the choir there is a painting by Moretto, Supper in the house of Simon the Pharisee, from 1544, which was originally located in the convent of San Fermo and Rustico di Monselice. The ceiling of the choir is decorated with another fresco by Tiepolo, the Triumph of Faith.

Church of San Giovanni in Bragora
The church of San Giovanni in Bragora is a place of worship catholic city of Venice. Its foundation dates back to 829. It was rebuilt in the 10th century, and again in 1178. In 1464 the church was restructured according to a late Gothic model, in the form we know today. The restructured while maintaining the basilica structure, creates a brick facade with the usual local late Gothic shapes, with the tripartition corresponding to the aisles; the wooden trussed ceiling is interesting.

Inside the chapel dedicated to San Giovanni l’Elemosiniere was erected, which houses the precious relics of the saint. The whole, in gilded and polychrome wood, presented a rather rich and complex structure. The carving work had been entrusted to two distinct masters: Alessandro da Caravaggio was responsible for the structure of the monument with the altar and the urn, Leonardo Tedesco the relief with the figure of the Saint, gilded and painted by Leonardo Boldrini. There was some works of Jacopo Palma the Younger. The high altar houses two large statues of San Giovanni l’Elemosiniere and San Giovanni Battista. To the right of the presbytery there is a small chapel. Next to this, the sacristy, which houses works by Alvise Vivarini, Risen Christ, and by Giambattista Cima da Conegliano, Sant’Elena and Costantino on either side of the cross. Other important works by Bartolomeo Vivarini, the triptych Sant’Andrea between the Saints Martino and Girolamo.

Church of San Giorgio dei Greci
The church of San Giorgio dei Greci is a religious building in the city of Venice. The building was born as a Greek-Catholic church. TThe construction of the building, in late Renaissance style, began in 1536. The exterior of the building was finally completed in 1571 with the construction of the dome. In the building adjacent to the church there is a small Museum of Greek-Byzantine icons and Orthodox sacred vestments. According to the chronicles, already under construction and before the belfry was completed. The interior is truly magnificent: the hemispherical dome is worth noting, with the center covered with frescoes by G. di Cipro.

The interior has a single nave structure and is covered with frescoes, the work of Giovanni di Cipro, with a two-tiered wooden choir along the side walls and a works by Giovanni Grapiglia. The iconostasis is characterized by marble decorations and paintings by Michele Damasceno depicting various saints and, on the architrave, the Twelve Feasts. Also in the hieron there is a fresco by Michele Damasceno (Apostles and Greek Saints), on the small apse above the main altar, while the apse and the triumphal arch are covered with mosaics from the early seventeenth century. There are also numerous other pictorial works: Ascension by Giovanni Ciprioto, the Last Supper panel by the Cretan Benedetto Emporios and Deposition by Michele Damasceno. On the walls of the chapel that houses the altar of the Preparation there is an icon of the Virgin with a silver shirt. The furnishings of the church are completed by a lectern from 1663 in tortoiseshell and mother of pearl and four bronze candelabra from the early seventeenth century.

Basilica of San Pietro di Castello
The basilica of San Pietro di Castello is an important place of worship in Venice, until 1807 the cathedral of the patriarchate of Venice. Built starting from 822 – 823 and completed around 831 – 832, it has been restored and rebuilt several times between the 16th and 17th centuries. The monumental facade is from 1594-1596 and the insulated bell tower, designed by Mauro Codussi (1482-1490). The façade of the project is attributed to Palladio, his first work in Venice. The structure had three naves, a tripartite facade and circular apses. The fundamental theme foresees a major order corresponding to the central nave, and a minor one in relation to the lateral ones. The whole is decorated with a nineteenth – century bas-relief depicting La Carità, by the sculptor Marsili. The style can be definedclassic. The building has a Latin cross scheme with three naves divided by three arches each, with an altar inside; at the intersection with the transept is the dome. The deep presbytery, which follows the large central nave of the church, is flanked by two side chapels.

The Chair of St. Peter, which according to tradition belonged to the Apostle himself when he was bishop of Antioch. In the right aisle San Pietro in Cattedra and four Saints by Marco Basaiti. Between the two chapels, the work by Veronese from around 1585, the Saints John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, the Immaculate Conception by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, 18th century, and The Martyrdom of St. John the Evangelist, by Padovanino. The Supper at Emmaus by Pietro Malombra and Antonio Vassilacchi, on the left wall of the portal. In the left aisle the Vendramin chapel and Lando chapel, with a mosaic altarpiece by Arminio Zuccato, on a cartoon perhaps by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1570. While on the right, by Jacopo Beltrame, 16th century, Supper in the House of Simone, two statues by Orazio Marinali, Faith and Meditation surrounding the Crucifix by Jacopo Strada. St. George and the Princess and the Dragon, work by Marco Basaiti; since 1985 it is on deposit at the Accademia Galleries.

Church of San Lorenzo
The church of San Lorenzo is a religious building in the city of Venice. The church dates to the 9th century, and became attached to the neighboring Benedictine monastery. It was rebuilt in 1580-1616 to designs by Simone Sorela. The high altar was partly sculpted by Giovanni Maria da Cannaregio using designs by Girolamo Campagna. The latter sculptor completed the statues of Saints Lawrence and Sebastian. Marco Polo was buried there, per his request on his deathbed.

The interior is particularly original, with its large area divided almost in the center by three large arches to separate the enclosure space from the public one. The base of the side arches is closed by a low wall with doors and windows, used as a parlor, and above an elaborate railing (once gilded) the separation ends, but still allows for a perception of airiness. Inside the highest central arch stands the great high altar. The sections of the ceiling corresponding to the two partitions of the plan are divided on the sides into barrel vaults, oriented orthogonally to the building, connected by ribs to the cross vaults of the median band, aligned between the large thermal windows and the central arch; each segment with the only simple ornamentation of a discreet central rose window. The main altar is the only altar surviving one among those of the church.

Church of Santa Maria Formosa
The Church of the Purification of Mary known as Santa Maria. The Church is one of the eight churches built in the 7th century by San Magno, Bishop of Oderzo. Legend has it that the Virgin Mary appeared to him in the form of a well-proportioned matron. The church was built several times over the centuries. Mauro Codussi built on the original Greek cross, the Latin plan with three naves, with the presbytery flanked by two minor chapels on each side, and large chapels on the sides of the minor aisles made more airy by the large lateral mullioned windows with which they communicate with each other and with the transept. Inside, the Brunelleschi theme of the gray stone architectural elements that stand out on the white plasters was taken up.

The facade with a classical appearance, it is divided into three parts by bundles of mirrored Corinthian half-pillars placed in pairs on high bases and closed, above the high entablature, a large tympanum crowned by vase-shaped acroterae. The north facing facade divided on two levels, the first is five-part by a minor order of Ionic pilasters that enclose blind arches on the sides. The second level is connected to the first by the two Corinthian and mirrored pillars of the major order on which the tympanum is set. The baroque bell tower was built in 1668 on a project by Francesco Zucconi. It has a central nave and aisles, a choir, transepts with cross vaults and a hemispherical dome. The church also houses some wonderful paintings by Bartolomeo Vivarini, Palma the Younger and Palma the Elder.

Other religious buildings include:
Church of Sant’Antonin;
Church of San Biagio;
Oratory of Ca ‘di Dio;
Church of the Madonna dell’Arsenale;
Church of Sant’Anna;
Church of Sant’Elena;
Church of Santa Giustina;
Church of Santa Maria del Pianto;
Church of San Martino;
Church of San Francesco di Paola;
Church of St. John of Malta;
Church of San Giovanni Nuovo;
Church of San Giuseppe di Castello;
Church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti;
Church of San Lio;
Church of Santa Maria.

Cultural space

Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art of Sant’Apollonia
The Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art “Sant’Apollonia” is a museum in Venice. Religious furnishings and objects from demolished churches and convents, one of the most evocative Romanesque cloisters in Venice. It is located in the Benedictine monastery once on the Ammiana island, near Torcello, which has now disappeared. The Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art was transferred at the end of 2020 to the Pinacoteca Manfrediniana. The Romanesque cloister, the oldest in Venice, has been home to the Lapidary of Marciano since 1969, a collection of Roman, Byzantine and Veneto-Byzantine stone fragments, mainly coming from the ancient basilica of San Marco.

The museum itinerary is developed in six exhibition sections. Picture Gallery: The section brings together an interesting collection of paintings. Jewelery: The museum has one of the most important and ancient collections of sacred silverware made up of about 200 pieces, dating from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century, coming from various Venetian churches. Wooden works: The museum includes among his works a rich collection of wooden sculptures ranging from the 14th to the 16th century. Dressed Madonnas: In the diocesan museum there is a remarkable collection of Madonnas dressed in traditional Venetian clothes, very interesting both from a historical-artistic and social point of view. Vestments, fabrics and illuminated manuscripts: The museum preserves sacred vestments, dating from the eighteenth to the 19th century. Contemporary Art: The Museum has around 40 contemporary art paintings. The section was born thanks to the donations of artists. The sacred theme has been reconsidered through different media and mixed techniques.

Naval History Museum
The Naval History Museum, owned by the Italian Navy, is located in the Arsenale of Venice. The museum collects historical evidence concerning navigation and in particular the Italian maritime history and the Venetian navy. Also part of the museum are the “Pavilion of the Ships” in the ancient oar workshop of the arsenal and the church of San Biagio, an ancient place of worship of the Venetian and then Austrian navy, finally used for the religious functions of the Navy personnel. The main building collects artistic and historical relics related to the history of the Italian navy distributed in 42 exhibition rooms on a total of five floors. The first three levels are dedicated to the businesses, equipment and characters of the Venice Navy and the Italian Navy, with some testimonies from the other Maritime Republics on the third floor. Also on the third level, there is a room dedicated to the Bucintoro, the ancient ceremonial boat of doge.

On the fourth floor, here are exhibited models of boats typical of the Venice lagoon, fishing boats and various gondolas, including the one donated by Peggy Guggenheim to the museum after her death. Other models of oriental ships and various relics are placed in a further room. The fifth floor, also called the “Swedish room”, is dedicated to the links between Venice and Sweden and between the Italian and Swedish navies, showing the help that our industries have brought to the formation of the navy and aviation of the Scandinavian country. A rich collection of shells donated by Roberta di Camerino has been placed in a small room which is accessed via a staircase. Ships pavilion open to the public only on special occasions, the pavilion displays authentic Venetian and military ships and a part of the engine room of the Elettra yacht. Church of San Biagio belongs to the Navy and the crews of the ships stationed in Venice have always “taken mass” here before going out to sea.

Querini Stampalia Foundation
The Querini Stampalia Foundation is a cultural foundation of Venice. The institution was entrusted the task of promoting the cult of good studies and useful disciplines, which offers the public a library, a museum and areas where temporary exhibitions are held, with particular attention to contemporary art. Located on the first floor of Palazzo Querini Stampalia, the Library preserves a bibliographic heritage of about 350,000 volumes, which is divided into historical collections, deriving from family collections, and modern collections, established after the foundation of the Foundation and in continuous growth. In the consultation and reading rooms, organized on open shelves according to the Dewey Decimal Classification, 32,000 volumes are available, while in the newspaper library there are 300 magazines and 20 newspapers, both national and foreign.

Set up on the second floor of Palazzo Querini Stampalia, the Museum owes its collections to the artistic collections formed over the course of the family’s history which were accompanied by acquisitions and donations after the foundation of the Foundation. Residence-museum of the Querini-Stampa family, library, art gallery, furniture and household objects from the sixteenth century onwards, important paintings by Bellini, Palma, Ricci, Tiepolo and Longhi. It is proposed to the public as a museum house in which a collection of paintings ranging from the fourteenth to the twentieth century are exhibited, mainly from the Venetian school, eighteenth-century and neoclassical furnishings, sculptures, Murano glass chandeliers, porcelain, art objects and furnishings.

Palazzo Grimani Museum
Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa is a museum State, located in Venice. A jewel of Renaissance architecture inaugurated in 2008 as a Venetian civic museum, collections of paintings, an archaeological collection of Greek and Roman artifacts, temporary exhibitions. The palace is, for the history of art and architecture in Venice, a unique and precious element. Its peculiar architectural form, the decorations full of enigmas and different interpretations, as well as the history of the events of the Grimani family of Santa Maria Formosa, are still today a passionate subject of study and research.

The long restoration has returned the rooms to the vision of visitors, including: the Camerino di Callisto, with stuccoes by Giovanni da Udine, the Camerino di Apollo, with frescoes by Francesco Salviati and Giovanni da Udine, the Sala del Doge Antonio, decorated with stuccoes and polychrome marbles, the Sala a Fogliami by Camillo Mantovano, with the ceiling entirely covered with fruit trees, flowers and animals, and the Tribune which housed more than one hundred pieces of the archaeological collection. Other works exhibited in the museum refer to the collecting interests of the Grimani family. In the Sala di Psiche you can admire the canvas with the Offering of gifts to Psyche, an ancient copy of the original by Francesco Salviati, already placed in the center of the wooden ceiling dismembered in the mid-nineteenth century.

Public space

Venice Arsenal
The Arsenal of Venice is an ancient complex of shipyards and workshops that forms a very large part of the island city of Venice, at its eastern end. It was the heart of the Venetian naval industry. The arsenal of Venice anticipated the modern concept of factory by a few centuries, intended as a production complex in which specialized workers carry out the individual assembly operations of an artifact in succession, along an assembly line and using standard components.. It represents the most important example of a large production complex with a centralized structure of the pre-industrial economy. The ownership of most of the Arsenal has, since 2013, passed to the Municipality of Venice, while the remaining part remains with the Italian Navy, present in the area with its Institute of Maritime Military Studies and the Naval History Museum. About a quarter of the large complex is used by the Venice Biennale for its contemporary art exhibitions.

Bridge of Sighs
The Bridge of Sighs is one of the most famous bridges in Venice. Made in the seventeenth century in white Istrian stone, it is the work of the architect Antonio Contin. The bridge connects the Doge’s Palace to the Prisons and was used precisely to transport inmates from their cells to the court. It was given this name because tradition has it that, at the time of the Serenissima, the prisoners, crossing it, sighed at the prospect of seeing the outside world for the last time. Globally known, it is photographed by tourists from all over the world.The Bridge of Sighs is visible only from the Ponte della Paglia or the Ponte della Canonica.

Equestrian monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni
The Equestrian Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni is a bronze statue, it’s the second equestrian statue of the Renaissance, after the monument to Gattamelata by Donatello in Padua, from 1446 – 1453. Verrocchio’s work differs from Donatello’s illustrious precedent also for the stylistic values of the work. To the concentrated and serene gait of Gattamelata, Verrocchio contrasted a leader set up according to an unprecedented dynamic rigor, with the stiff and energetically rotated torso, the head firmly pointed towards the enemy, the legs rigidly spread like compasses, the gritty and vital gestures. The orthogonal lines of force (horizontal in the upper profile of the horse’s back and neck, vertical in the figure of the leader) amplify the dynamic effect.

Surrounding

Church of San Michele in Isola
The church of San Michele in Isola, also known as San Michele di Murano, given its proximity to the island of Murano, is a religious building in Venice, located on the island of San Michele. This church provides an example of the Renaissance era. The church was designed by Mauro Codussi and houses the city cemetery. The façade is tripartite, freely inspired by the Malatesta Temple of Alberti, with two superimposed levels. The lower one is characterized by a smooth ashlar, which also covers the Ionic pilasters, within which there is a central portal with a triangular tympanum and two high arched windows in correspondence with the side aisles. The upper level, between pilastersIonic too, it is instead smooth, and there is a large oculus, around which four polychrome marble discs are arranged. This second level is surmounted by the curvilinear pediment, while the sides are connected by two wings with a lower curvature, with fine shell relief ornaments; at the point where they connect to the central part there is a protruding cornice that cuts the pilasters in two.

San Michele Cemetery
The San Michele cemetery is located on the island of the same name in the Venetian lagoon, located between Venice and Murano. Depending on the religious denomination, the cemetery is divided into Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical areas. Cemetery established following the edict of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, part of the European circuit of monumental cemeteries. The Russian dancer Serge Diaghilev, the Austrian physicist Christan Doppler, the American poet Ezra Pound, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the Italian-German composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari are buried in the cemetery of San Michele. Hemicycle 22 at the entrance to the 19th century monumental historical cemetery is made up of 38 aedicules, which include various private noble chapels belonging to noble families. A floating bridge make it possible to walk to the Cemetery for the Commemoration of the dead.

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