I've divided the island churches up by island for the ones with the most churches,
followed by a separate alphabetical sequence for the single ones.
 




The Lido
1. San Nicolò di Lido
2.
Sant'Antonio di Padova
3.
Santa Maria Assunta
4.
Santa Maria della Vittoria
5.
Santa Maria Elisabetta
6.
Santa Maria Nascente

Murano
7. San Pietro Martire
8.
Santa Chiara
9.
Santa Maria degli Angeli
10.
Santi Maria e Donato

Burano
11. Le Cappuccine Santa Maria delle Grazie
12.
San Martino




Torcello
13. Santa Fosca
14.
Santa Maria Assunta

Mazzorbo
15. San Michele Arcangelo
16.
Santa Caterina


...and the rest
(on islands that bear their names)

17.
San Clemente
18.
San Francesco del Deserto
19.
San Lazzaro degli Armeni
20.
San Michele in Isola
San Michele Arcangelo
21. San Servolo
22.
Sant'Erasmo

 

San Nicolò
Lido
Tommaso Contin/Matteo Cirtoni 1626-29


History
The original medieval Benedictine church, dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra (the inspiration for Santa Claus) was founded in 1044 built between 1053 and 1064 and renovated and enlarged in 1316. The church as you see it today was rebuilt on a different spot, begun by Francesco Contin in 1626 and finished by Matteo Cirtoni in 1629. (The remains of the old church can be found in the adjacent cloisters.)
The church houses some 500 bone fragments that are relics of Saint Nicholas - the 4th-century patron saint of sailors and children. Recent anatomical studies and DNA testing have shown that the fragments here and the bones remaining in Bari could come from the same skeleton. The story is that the Venetian Crusader fleet on its way to Joppa (Jaffa) in 1100 stopped off at Bari in search of the bones of St Nicholas, which had been stolen and taken to Bari from Myra. It is said that the Venetians tortured the four Christian keepers of the shrine, but learned nothing. They decided to make do with the bones of Saint Theodore (Venice's patron saint before St Mark) but then a sweet smell began to emanate from behind the altar, leading them to the bones of St Nicholas, which they then took too.
It is to this church that the doge came during the Festa della Sensa (or Ascension Day Festival) to celebrate the marriage of Venice and the sea by throwing a gold ring into the lagoon. The ceremony continues to this day, with the Mayor standing in for the Doge.

The church
The façade is unfinished. The monument over the main doorway is to Doge Domenico Contarini, who founded the original church in the 11th century, and dates from the 17th century.

Interior
Inside it looms, with high grubby/sandy walls with mid-grey architectural detailing. Looking down the aisle to where the gap between the walls narrows behind the high altar this detailing looks somewhat too big and out of scale, but elsewhere it's fine.
An aisleless nave with three communicating side chapels on each side.
There's a baroque high altar of 1630 with a riot of polychrome marble inlay and a sarcophagus on top, where a pediment should be, housing the remains of Saints Nicholas and Theodore. This was the work of Cosimo Fanzago.
The wooden choir behind the altar dated 1634 by Giovanni Carlo and Giovanni Cremasco, the latter responsible for the carving of relief panels and other decoration, with panels depicting 27 Episodes from the Life of St Nicholas.

Art highlights
All from the 17th and 18th centuries. No big names but a nice and warm fresco
on the inner façade of Venice Paying Homage to Saint Nicholas by Girolamo Pellegrini. Another highlight is an attractive Ascension by Pietro Muttoni, known as Pietro della Vecchia.

The monastery
Founded and renovated at the same time as the church, with a cloister added in the 16th century. Suppressed in 1770. Occupied in 1938 by the Friars Minor of San Antonio. It stood in for a Brazilian monastery in the James Bond film Moonraker, which was filmed mostly in Venice. Now a study and research centre.

Campanile
Baroque, dating from the rebuilding of 1626-1629.

The church in art
The Doge in the Bucentaur at San Nicolo di Lido on Ascension Day by Guardi (see right) is in the Louvre.

Opening times
Unpredictable

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Sant'Antonio di Padova
Lido
1936


 



History
Built in 1936 in a Veneto Byzantine style to echo that of the churches on Torcello. It replaced a tent on the beach that the congregation had used up to then.

Interior
A clean and modern church, inside it's an impressive and bricky tall space redolent of train stations and Westminster Cathedral, with a pleasingly lofty light-and-shadow thing going on.

Opening times Almost always

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Santa Maria Assunta
Lido
1557


History
Founded in the 15th century and rebuilt in 1557. The interior is a single nave with a vaulted roof and contains 17th and 18th century works by Girolamo Forabosco, Lama and Pittoni.

Kept in the sacristy is a carved wooden altarpiece from the early 15th century, called 'il Palliotto' ,by Paolo delle Masegne, showing the blessing Christ, Mary's Ascension, and 12 saints (see photo below).

Opening times Normally

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All three Photos by
Brigitte Eckert.

 

Santa Maria Elisabetta
Lido
1627


History
The Lido's parish church. Built in the mid-16th century as an oratory and enlarged and converted into a church in 1627, with consecration following in 1671. Much restoration around 1970.

Interior
Small and aisleless with a pair of side altars each side and a high altar in a shallow vaulted apse. The high altarpiece depicts The Visitation.
One of the side altars on the left has an altarpiece 'attributed to a student of Salviati' depicting Saints Apollonia, Catherine of Alexandria, and Lucy, with Saint Oswald in Glory. The label in the church also narrows its date down to the last half of the 16th century, or the first half of the 17th. The other altar on the left side has a 16th-century Venetian/Cretan icon of the Virgin and Child and a small 15th century sculpture of The Pieta.
On the right-hand altars there's a Virgin in Glory with Saint Nicholas between Saints Gerardo Sagrado and Benedict by Gerolamo Pilotti from 1609 and an early-17th-century Baptism of Christ.

Campanile
Late 19th century.

Opening times
Services only

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Photo right by Brigitte Eckert.

Santa Maria Nascente
Lido
1932


History

A small church in the grounds of the Ospedale al Mare, the Lido's large and dilapidated hospital complex, which has been all fenced off for years now, awaiting redevelopment. Built in 1932 to a neo-gothic design by engineer Antonio Spandri. Panel paintings and frescoes by Giuseppe Cherubini, who also painted the ceiling mural in the
ospedale's Marinoni Theatre.


Interior

A sweet little space, with a timber roof, pale painted walls and nice olde gothick detailing and frescos belying its lack of actual age (see left).

Opening times
The church is within the ruined hospital complex which has been all fenced off for years now, awaiting redevelopment.

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A photo taken in 1932

The other churches on The Lido



Suore Bianche
(Suore del Sacro Cuore?)

Opening times
Often found open


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Santa Maria della Vittoria
Built 1925-38 to a design by Giuseppe Torres as a memorial to the Italian dead of WWI, 2700 of whom are buried in the crypt. Also known as the Venice War memorial and the Tempio Votivo. The large green dome is one of the first landmarks seen as you approach the Lido vaporetto stop.

Opening times
Usually closed

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San Pietro Martire
Murano
1511


History

The original church and Dominican monastery, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was built from 1363, being consecrated in 1417, thanks to a bequest of 1438 by Marco Michiel. A tablet on the far right of the façade commemorates this. This church burned down in 1474 and was rebuilt and enlarged, reopening in 1511 and dedicated to St Peter Martyr. The church was closed in 1806, the monastery taken over by the military, and its art moved to the Accademia Gallery. (Following partial demolition the monastery buildings latter became a primary school, then were used for glass art classes, and later was used by the postal service.)  It reopened in 1813 as a parish church due to an initiative by Father Stefano Tosi, with art from other suppressed churches and monasteries on Murano and other islands. At its reopening the church was renamed S. Pietro e Paolo, but reverted to its present name in 1840. The colonnade attached to the west flank of the church (see photo below left) came from the demolished convent of Santa Chiara, being reassembled here in 1924, during the restoration of 1922-28. This period of restoration also saw the the revelation of the original ceiling and the frescos of the saints above the pillars.

Interior
Impressively spacious and tall - a nave and two aisles, which are divided from each other by rows of four arches. The spandrels between the arches are nicely decorated with saints and some attractive lettering (see right), tie beams across the arches and the nave, with a trussed roof. There's a wide and deep half-domed chancel and a pair of apsidal chapels, also wide and deep.

Art highlights
You might read that Giovanni Bellini's late Assumption of the Virgin in Glory with Saints Peter, John the Evangelist, Mark, Francis, Louis of Toulouse, Anthony Abbot, Augustine and John the Baptist. (1510-15) (see right) is in the sacristy here but since the 1990s it's been away being restored. Update It went on display at the Venice Diocesan Museum in October 2016, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Bellini's death, with the expectation that it would be returned here if the restoration had 'taken'. In January 2017 it was still in the Diocesan Museum, and sadly suffering visibly from its damp and unsuitable surroundings - the angry attendant let me step over the velvet rope to examine the damage. Later in 2017 more restoration work was announced.
It was originally on the high altar in the nearby church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and had previously been thought to be the work of Marco Basaiti. It is now thought to be largely or wholly a studio work, with recent scholarship giving it mostly to Bellini's close friend and collaborator Vittore Belliniano.
A Bellini which is here is The Virgin with Doge Agostino Barbarigo. This was originally in the Doge's Palace, for which such images were traditionally commissioned by doges, and hence its non-altarpiece-like horizontal format. It was reframed and moved to the high altar of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1501, as Barbarigo had requested in his will, two of his daughters having been nuns there. It came here in 1815 and was just recently returned to this church after years spent in restoration.
Saints Nicholas, Charles Borromeo and Lucy by Palma Giovane, which came from the demolished church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo on Giudecca. A recognisable (early?) Tintoretto of The Baptism Of Jesus, which came from above the high altar of the demolished San Giovanni dei Battuti on Murano. Two by Paolo Veronese: Saint Agatha Visited in Prison by Saint Peter and an Angel and a better Saint Jerome in the Desert, originally from the nearby church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. (These last two have recently undergone much-needed restoration work and where exhibited at the Accademia in 2017 and in an exhibition at the Frick in New York in earl 2018.)
A Virgin and Child with Saints by Giovanni Agostino da Lodi (previously thought to be by Basaiti) came from the demolished church of San Cristoforo delle Pace. In the left-hand apsidal chapel there's a hard-to-see painting by Domenico (a.k.a. son of) Tintoretto. Covering both side walls of the deep chancel are a pair of huge paintings by Bartolomeo Latteri, including an impressively architectural Nozze di Cana.

The sacristy
There was once a church and scuola of San Giovanni dei Battuti on Murano. Use of the term 'Battuti', or 'the beaten', refers to flagellant orders. The complex was demolished and some paneling, carved by Pietro Morando, was removed from the scuola and installed in the sacristy here in 1815 (see right). Paintings from the scuola were installed above the dossals. The sacristy is part of the church's museum in which, for a small fee, you can see some displaced altarpieces, various reliquaries, odd documents and plush vestments.

Lost art
Parts of an altarpiece made up of a large lunette panel of The Madonna della Misericordia with Saints with three full-length panels of Saints Vincent Ferrer and Roch flanked by Saints Sebastian and Peter Martyr, by Andrea da Murano, are in the large Room XXIII in the Accademia - a room converted from the Carita church. The panels were likely painted while the church was being rebuilt following the fire of 1474
Also in this room are two panels, probably once parts of a polyptych, of Saints Matthew and John the Baptist, with oddly Egyptian feet, by Alvise Vivarini from c.1480.
Two works are by Veronese, also in the Accademia. His strange Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto, which was originally much larger and positioned to the right of the Rosary altar here. In the clouds above the battle Saints Peter, representing the Pope, James, symbolising Spain, Giustina on whose feast day the battle took place and Mark pray to the Virgin for victory. The battle took place on the 7th of October 1571 and the picture was painted soon after, probably for Pietro Giustinian of Murano, Also Veronese's (largely workshop) Virgin of the Rosary which was hung opposite it in the same chapel.
Carpaccio's 1507 Disputatio of Saint Thomas Aquinas with Saints Mark and Louis of Toulouse, now in the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, was painted for the Saint Thomas Aquinas altar in the left aisle here. The donor was Tommaso Licinio, the owner of the "al Dragone" glassblowing company on Murano. Saint Louis was the name saint of Tommaso's son Alvise, who kneels at the saint's feet.
A Virgin and Child with Saints Joseph and Simeon by Andrea Solario (1495) is now in the Brera, Milan.
A pair of organ doors showing The Annunciation by Girolamo Bonsignori of c.1510 are now in the Castelvecchio in Verona. He was the younger brother of the more famous Francesco.
In 1508 Fra Bartolomeo from Florence moved to Venice and painted a Holy Father with Saints Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Siena (see right) for this church. It was an arguably obvious influence on Titian's Assumption in the Frari. For some reason the Dominicans here refused to pay for it, so Bartolomeo took it to Lucca, where it remains.

Ruskin wrote
Its pictures, once valuable, are not hardly worth examination, having been spoiled by neglect.

Campanile
Built 1498-1502. The original bells came from England but have been recast many times since, most recently in 1942 after war damage.

Opening times
Monday-Saturday 9.00 - 12.00, 3.00 - 6.00
Sunday 3.00 - 6.00

Vaporetto Faro

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Santa Chiara
Murano
1519


History
There is said to have been a church on this site as early as 1231. Augustinian monks settled here and, around 1369, Benedictine nuns. Observant Franciscan Sisters of St. Clare were next, and in 1519 started on major renovations. The complex was suppressed in 1826 and converted for use as a glass factory and warehouse by Fratelli Marietti from Milan. In the 1880s the church was bought by the Barone Franchetti who divided it into 2 floors inside. Abandoned since the 1970s, the church was comprehensively collapsing as a rubbish store for the Murano Glass Museum, until 2011 when the Belluardo Family bought it and began considerable renovation work. The photo (left) shows how much better the façade is looking now, compared to the photo right from a few years ago.
The church recently re-opened 'offering an innovative and interactive historic museum/shop', but with little of the original church about it. The innovation seems to be a Prosecco bar from which you can watch the glassblowers while you drink.

Casanova connection
His famous lover, the nun M.M., is said to have lived in this convent, from which the pair would abscond to the Casinò Mocenigo next door.

Lost art
The Madonna of the Orange Tree (with Saints Jerome and Louis of Toulouse) by Cima da Conegliano of 1496/98 originally hung over the high altar here. It was taken by the Austrians in 1816 and returned after WW1 to be put in the Accademia, where it far from disgraces itself in the masterpiece-filled Room 2. It also, for once, doesn't have Jerome in anachronistic red cardinal's robes.

Vaporetto Colonna                                                                        
After' photo (left) courtesy of Giuseppe Belluardo. 'Before' photo (right) by Brigitte Eckert

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Santa Maria degli Angeli
Murano
1498-1529
 


History
An ancient site, re-founded by Giacomina Boncio in 1188 with an adjoining Augustinian convent
, for nuns who had fled from Treviso, escaping the invading Hungarians lead by King Lajos. Rebuilt and enlarged from 1494-1529, when the church was reconsecrated, with the help of the Barbarigo family, specifically Agostino, who served as procurator here and was later elected Doge. Following suppression in 1810 the important art was moved to San Pietro Martire, the nun's choir (barco) was demolished, and the choir and organ had been removed by 1830. In 1832 the monastery was demolished and the church closed in 1849. But the church was saved, undergoing restoration from 1861 and being reconsecrated on 12th July 1863. In 1871/2 the area that had been occupied by the barco was walled off and three-story premises for a charitable organisation were built. Much renovation in recent years.
The church is approached through a portal over which is an early-16th-century bas-relief of The Annunciation, described as 'graceful' by Ruskin and sometimes claimed to be by pupils of Donatello.

Interior
Consists of an aisleless nave, this church was said to be in a poor state of repair, being propped up in places and having lost its barco (nun's gallery). But a recent restoration seems to have worked wonders, as photos taken by a recent (May 2013) visitor show (see below right).
A ceiling of thirty-nine painted panels of c.1495 by Nicolò Rondinelli from Ravenna, an assistant of Giovanni Bellini. They depict Prophets, Apostles and The Evangelists, and The Doctors of the Church around a central panel of The Coronation of the Virgin. An Austrian cannonball during the siege of 1849 destroyed the ceiling panel of Noah, but this was replaced during restoration work in 1866. 
Also works by Palma Giovane and Alessandro Vittoria. The Annunciation (1537-1538) over the high altar was commissioned from Pordenone after the nun's  baulked at the price demanded by Titian for a work depicting the same subject (see Lost Art below)

Lost art
Due to the monastery's close connections with many Venetian aristocratic families much fine art was commissioned.
A Virgin and Child on Clouds and four Angels where painted on the ceiling on the nuns' choir (barco) by
Nicolò Rondinelli, the artist also responsible for the ceiling. Following the removal of the barco the main panel is in the Sacristy in the Salute, and the Angels went to San Pietro Martire.
The lovely Giovanni Bellini The Virgin with Doge Agostino Barbarigo, (c.1510-1515) now to be found in the church of San Pietro Martire, was bequeathed to be placed over the high altar here. (He also left them 'four wall hangings and a large carpet').  Two of Agostino's daughters were nuns at the convent here and he wished to 'be reassured every time the nuns pray to God for our soul and the souls of members of our family who have departed this life'. He had kept it in his own apartments from its completion in 1488 until his death in 1501. Bellini's late Virgin in Glory with Eight Saints (1510-15) also moved from this church to San Pietro Martire  but since the 1990s it's been away being restored. Update It went on display at the Venice Diocesan Museum in October 2016, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist's death, with the expectation that it would be returned to San Pietro Martire if the restoration had 'taken'. In January 2017 it was still in the Diocesan Museum, and suffering visibly from its damp and unsuitable surroundings.
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness and Saint Agatha Visited in Prison by Saint Peter and an Angel  by Paolo Veronese are also now to be found in San Pietro Martire
. (These two have recently undergone much-needed restoration work and where exhibited at the Accademia in 2017 and in an exhibition at the Frick in New York in earl 2018.) They were originally painted for a small chapel dedicated to Saint Jerome in the cemetery here, built in 1566 and demolished in 1830. The chapel can be seen to the right of the church in the low centre of the map of 1696 below. Three smaller panels (initially joined) showing John the Baptist, Piety, and Saint Nicholas by Veronese's son Carletto, are now lost. All of these works were moved into the church in 1667 for their protection, and replaced with copies. Another painting by Paolo for the main church, under the organ, is now also lost. Scholars have disagreed over the attributions, often giving Saint Agatha to Veronese's brother Benedetto. They are not the most luminous of works by any Veronese, to be sure.

Also moved to San Pietro Martire were a dark Annunciation by Lazzarini and an Entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem by Diziani. These last two are currently squeezed into the corridor into the church's sacristy and museum.  A Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Zachariah by Francesco da Santa Croce is in the church museum there.
A large altarpiece of 1536 depicting The Annunciation, was commissioned by the nuns here from Titian but they baulked at the 500 ducats asked and also maybe didn't like its theatricality, it being as big and as dynamic as the Frari Assunta. It was instead sent by Titian, at Aretino's advising, to empress Isabella of Spain instead, with the emperor's insignia PLVS VLTRA added on a scroll between two angels. The painting disappeared during the Napoleonic wars.

Lost bodies
Doge Sebastiano Venier, the hero of Lepanto, was buried here, but his remains were later moved to San Zanipolo.

Casanova connection
One of Casanova's great loves, Caterina Capretta was removed to the convent here, of which little remains but some walls, when she became pregnant. Her brother had attempted to sell her and/or her virginity to Casanova, but it seems their relationship was a relatively romantic one, although she was one of two women made pregnant by Casanova at this time (Spring 1753). Visits and note-passings ensued, with the help of a nun called Laura, who Casanova would meet in San Cancian, until 'C.C.' had a miscarriage. His visits continued and later he would begin having assignations with another, more libertine, nun called M.M. at the nearby convent of Santa Chiara.  He was often to be found at mass in the church here under the eyes of both his mistresses who were, at least according to Casanova, themselves lovers.

Opening times
For services only

Vaporetto
Venier

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Interior photos by David Orme.
 

Santi Maria e Donato
Murano
1125-1141


History
Legend has it that this church was built by Otho the Great, to whom the Virgin appeared and told him to build her a church in what was then a three-cornered meadow scattered with scarlet lilies. A document of 999 says that refugees from the mainland founded this church in the 7th century and dedicated it to the Virgin. The church was rededicated when the body of Saint Donatus, the patron saint of Murano, was brought here from Cephalonia in 1125 by Doge Domenico Michiel, along with the bones of a dragon the saint had slain. This date also seems to be when the church was built in its current form, with the work completed in 1141, a date which is recorded on the mosaic floor.
Some of the remains of San Gerardo Sagredo were translated here in 1333 and the urn is taken to San Giorgio Maggiore every hundredth anniversary of his departure to spend a night there.
Baroque redecoration followed in the 18th century and then a restoration in 1858-73 returned the church to its previous appearance, with major rebuilding of the apse. It was this restoration that Hugh Honour condemned for 'bastardising' the church so that it was neither 12th or 18th century in appearance but a bad mixture of the two. A lot of this work was reversed during later restoration, especially in the 1970s, leaving the church very much as it would've appeared in the 12th century.

The church
Brick and terracotta. The lovely two-tiered blind arcaded apse seen across the campo and the canal is usually one's first, jaw-dropping, view of this church. The plain façade cannot compete.

 


Interior
Here the basic basilical plan, as seen in the cathedral on Torcello, gets a transept added, to make a Latin cross, with the nave separated from aisles by two rows of Greek marble columns with Veneto-Byzantine capitals and brick detailing around the arches and windows.  Tall and very bare with a 15th century ship's-keel roof and no side chapels. There are damaged frescoes behind the altar and in the apse's half dome there's a 12th century mosaic of The Virgin. The wonderful polychrome opus sectile mosaic pavement, contemporary with that of San Marco, and probably the work of the same craftsmen, was restored and completely re-laid in the 1970s. The high altar contains the remains of Saint Donatus and behind the altar hang the four bones of the dragon he supposedly slew by spitting at it.

Art highlights
A 14th century polyptych of the Dormition of the Virgin over the high altar. The lunette from over the main door, now over the left-hand entrance, of The Virgin and Child with Saints Donatus and John the Baptist, and a donor.

Campanile
Detached Romanesque 12th-13th century.

Lost art
A painted low-relief panel depicting Saint Donatus (see right) dated 1310 is in the Venice Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art at Sant’Apollonia. Paolo Veneziano's name is bandied around, but he was evidently only responsible for the miniature donor figures - the Podesta Donato Memmo and his wife.
An Antiphoner (music manuscript) of 1325 which belonged to this church is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (McClean 55). It having originally been here is indicated by it having texts relating to Saints Donatus and Gerard, and the latter's relics being in the church.

The church in art
The Church of Santa Maria e San Donato in Murano is by Luigi Querena, a 19th-century vedute painter and the son of Lattanzio, the restorer, and painter of many altarpieces for Venetian churches. It's very pretty (see right).

Opening times
Monday-Saturday 8.30-12.00, 4.00-7.00
Sunday 4.00-6.00
Update September 2022 Reports of the place closed for major works, inside and out.

Vaporetto
Museo

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Le Cappuccine
Burano
18th century
 




History
Built in the 18th century(?) the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (also known as 'Le Cappuccine') is all that's left of a convent complex which was suppressed in 1806.

Vaporetto Burano

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Ferdinando Ongania




 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interior in 1963.
 

San Martino
Burano
16th century


History
Founded in 959. The current church dates from 16th century and has no façade, as its west end abuts onto houses.  Said to be the work of Andrea Tirali, with later enlargements and restorations.

Art highlights
In the second bay from the front on the right is a damaged and dark Crucifixion of 1719-20 by Giambattista Tiepolo, a large and ambitious early work (8 feet by13) and strongly influenced by the Tintoretto Crucifixion in the Scuola di San Rocco. In the bottom left-hand corner is a distracting gilt-framed periwigged portrait of the donor, a Burano pharmacist.
Also works by Francesco Fontabasso, Giovanni Mansueti, and Girolamo da Santacroce. Some are now in the nearby Oratorio di Santa Barbara.

Campanile
By Tirali too, built 1703-14 and leaning.

Opening times
8.00-12.00, 3.00-7.00

Interior photo by David Orme

Vaporetto Burano

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 Santa Fosca
Torcello
11th century


History
This 11th century church was built to house the remains of Santa Fosca, the virgin martyr of Ravenna, and those of Santa Maura, her nurse and partner in martyrdom. The remains of both had been brought here in the 10th century. 

The church
Centrally-planned, a lovely square and bare pale brick space, with streaky and strokable Cycladic marble columns. It's technically Greek-Cross shaped with clever embellishments to its shape. The stoutness of the supports suggests that a cupola may have been planned for the roof, not the existing timber roof. The remains of the Saint are on display in an illuminated case under the altar. On
the exterior there is a colonnade around five of the eight sides and an early 15th century bas-relief St Fosca Being Worshipped by her Confreres (see right, photo by Brigitte Eckert).

Vaporetto Torcello

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This old postcard shows Santa Maria Assunta centre,
with Santa Fosca on the right.

 

Santa Maria Assunta
Torcello
1008


Local history

Torcello was the earliest area of the lagoon to be settled, in 452, as residents of the region fled the invading barbarians. The Bishop of Altinum (Altino) brought his congregation to Torcello after standing on high ground and seeing a line of stars guiding him here. This migration, and similar waves from the likes of Padua (to Chioggia) and Aquileia resulted in Venetians regarding themselves as the heirs of 'Rome unfallen' as they alone were unconquered. Torcello's population grew to 20,000 around 900 but the area declined in importance with the expansion of 'mainland' Venice and so Santa Maria Assunta avoided major later rebuilding.

History
The first church was erected here in 639 and expanded in 824. It was given its current form, and a campanile was added, around 1008. Restored in 1423, the cathedral's mosaic pavement, the mosaics on the walls and other decoration was also added in the 15th century. More work in 1646 following lightning damage to the church and campanile. A bequest by Emperor Francis I of Austria allowed repairs in 1821 and 1827.
The 19th-century restorer of the mosaics, Giovanni Moro, did such poor work here that he was tried and convicted for it.
In 1929-39 restoration back to the church's original appearance saw the removal of later-added baroque accretions. Despite this supposedly returning the church to it's original state we still have here in a church showing work spanning five or six hundred years.

The church
The ruined circular building in front was a baptistery (see photos right), part of the original 7th-century building. The loggia dates from the second rebuilding.

Interior
Large, Byzantine and basilical with a jazzy marble mosaic floor, divided into an unequal nave and two aisles. The altar table is made from fragments of the original, reinstalled after the removal of the baroque replacement in the 1929-39 restoration. Underneath are the remains of Saint Heliodorus, first Bishop of Altinum and a friend of Saint Jerome, brought here in 635. There's a Byzantine-inspired marble screen dividing the chancel from the nave, with an old (and looking it) Crucifix on it. A frieze stretches across the screen's whole width, with images of the Virgin and Child with The Twelve Apostles. The semi-dome in the apse behind has a 13th-century mosaic of the Virgin and Child in a field of gold, probably the work of Greek craftsmen from Constantinople who were responsible for the Apostles in the atrium of San Marco. Here there's a frieze of The Apostles below and an Annunciation above.
The back wall is one huge and spectacular mosaic containing the Crucifixion and the Last Judgement. It is special and I really must return and deal properly with it one day.

Campanile
11th-century and 55 metres high. Can now be climbed, following restoration after 30 years use as a pigeon loft. Having climbed it herself George Sand wrote of 'le silence inconceptuelle de la nature'. The nearby small oratory to St Mark is said to have been his body's first resting place on its way from Alexandria in 829.

Opening times
April-October 10.30 - 5.30
November-March 10.00 - 4.30
€5 entrance fee
€9 combined ticket to church and campanile
Update November 2021  It seems that the campanile is closed and there's currently a lot on intrusive scaffolding in the church.



Vaporetto Torcello

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San Michele Arcangelo
Mazzorbo
 



Photo by Brigitte Eckert
 
 
History
There was an old church of this name hereabouts, of uncertain date, but it was documented as here by the 12th century.
Documents dating to 1699 mention a Romanesque structure with a  nave and two aisles. The church was left to crumble from c.1600 until 1747 , when it underwent restoration. In 1807 during the Napoleonic suppressions the church was deconsecrated and passed into private ownership in 1819. The main chapel collapsed in 1825 and the church was demolished in 1828. The area was then used as a cemetery and the current brick chapel built, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta.

Campanile
All that remains of the original church, in a Romanesque/Renaissance style, it is in a ruinous state and currently fenced off. It had four bells. The two largest and oldest went to Santa Caterina (see below), one disappeared and the fourth is assumed to be the one that remains.

Vaporetto Mazzorbo


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Santa Caterina
Mazzorbo
14th century
 


History

Between the 7th and 17th centuries four monasteries and five churches were built on the island of Mazzorbo, of which only this one church remains. The original church dates back to 783 and the founding of a Benedictine nunnery. The current building is 14th century Romanesque-Gothic, restored in the 16th century. The convent was suppressed and demolished in 1806 and the church passed to parish use. Further restoration took place in 1922-25. 'Heavy-handed' is the phrase used by my guide book to describe this latter work.

The church
There's a marble relief of 1368 of The Marriage of St Catherine over the door and a painting of The Baptism of St Catherine and St Mary Magdalene by Giuseppe Salviati over the high altar. There is a barco (nun's gallery) and a ship's-keel roof.

Lost art
Veronese's Santa Caterina di Mazzorbo altarpiece (see below) is now in the Pitti Palace in Florence. It shows Saint Benedict, his pupils Maurus and Placidus, and his sister Scholastica with more nuns, and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine happening in the sky.


Campanile
Of uncertain date, although part of the convent building, and restored in 1762. Has a small dome and a very old bell, dated 1318, originally from San Michele Arcangelo (see above).


Bibliography
There's a book about the church by
Marco Molin (Edition Quaderni Torcellani) published in 2010 and for sale for €10 in the church and at bookshops in Venice.

Opening times April-September Friday-Sunday 11.00-1.00, 2.00-5.00

Vaporetto Mazzorbo or Burano

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Campanile photo by Brigitte Eckert. Interior photo by David Orme.
 

San Clemente
Late 15th century
 

History
The Island had long been used to house pilgrims when in 1432 it was given to the canons of the Santa Maria della Carità monastery in Venice. The church, which had been built in the Romanesque style in 1131-60 was enlarged in the late 15th century. In 1630 the island had temporarily been a hospital for plague victims. In 1642 it was bought by the Camaldolite congregation of Monte Rua, who rebuilt the church from 1653-1750. This work has been attributed to Andrea Cominelli in the pay of Bernardo Morosini. The façade of 1488 was restored at this time but kept its Codussi-influenced appearance. Bust of Francesco and Tommaso Morosini, who funded the rebuilding, are to be found on the façade and inside.

The monastery was closed by Napoleon and initially put to military use, before most of the monastery complex was demolished. Since then the island has housed a lunatic asylum (from 1844 until 1992, and initially for women only) and a cat sanctuary. A larger complex was built 1858-73, most of which remains. It's now a luxury hotel, looking like a big pink hospital, and recent photos show the sacristy and cloisters being used as a restaurant.

Art highlights
My most recent guidebook says that paintings by such 17th century artists as Marieschi, Zanchi, Trevisani and Marchetti are being kept in storerooms awaiting replacement. The hotel website merely says 'only a few canvases survive'. See Lost art below.
There is a painted panel in the apse (see above). There is no high altar, as such, but a baroque replica of the Santa Casa (Holy House) in Loretto built in the 1640s (see photo right) which has the remains of 17th century frescos inside (see photo below right).
The Santa Casa was the house in Nazareth where Mary received the Annunciation, which angels brought to Yugoslavia when Saracens invaded in the 13th century, and then to Italy.

Lost art
Statues of Faith and Hope, (see right for one of them) stolen from here, can be seen in the Sant'Apollonia Diocesan Museum. (The fact that she's carrying a purse suggests that she's Charity.) They were dragged along the seabed wrapped in tyres, we're told, and the resulting marks can still be seen on them.
Antonio Zanchi's Archangel Michael Defeats Satan in the Presence of the Virgin and Child in Glory from here  is now in the Diocesan Museum, so maybe the rest (mentioned above) are too.


Opening times
A private boat for the hotel, which anyone can use, departs every 20 minutes from just in front of the Zecca (look for the sign saying Hotel San Clemente Palace).  They ask no questions, I'm told, and the church is always open.


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The colour photos (except the statue) are by Alessandro Spada.

The two black and white photos were taken in 1937
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San Clemente in the late 18th century
 

San Francesco del Deserto
1228-33
 


History
Tradition says that Saint Francis himself stopped here in 1220 on his return from Egypt and preached to the birds. An old pine tree was said to have sprouted from his walking stick planted in the ground here. (The tree is said to have died naturally in 1701, with bits of it preserved in this church until at least 1970.)

The  monastery was founded here in 1233, the island having been given to the Franciscans by patrician Jacopo Michiel. It was the the first monastery established after Francis's original one at Assisi. The complex was expanded at the end of the 13th century and restored (with a cloister added) in 1453. The monks deserted the island because of a malaria outbreak in the 15th century (hence the del Deserto in the name) and later were forced off the island by Napoleonic army in the early 19th century, but they returned both times and remain to this day. Major unsympathetic restoration 1921-23, with some reportedly better work in 1962. Not sure when the window removal evident in the comparison of the old and new photos took place - the old photo dates from the 1930s, I think, so presumably the removal happened during the later restoration.

The convent in fiction
In Pandora's Galley by Macdonald Harris the central character takes refuge here and spends time conversing with Fra Mauro, the renowned mathematician and cartographer monk, who actually lived in the monastery of San Michele.

Opening times
Tuesday-Saturday 9.00-11.00, 3.00-5.00 Sunday 3.00-5.00
The island is accessible only by private boat. Admission by voluntary donation.



Update April 2022 It is now possible to book a return boat trip online to the island, leaving at 2.30 from Burano. Click here or here for details.

Update December 2019 For the four recent photos thanks to Alexander Turchik

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San Lazzaro degli Armeni
1750
 


History
This island had provided shelter for pilgrims since the 12th century and since many of them had leprosy it was decided to build a hospital here. In Venetian dialect leprosy is 'mal di San Lazzarro' after Lazarus, the beggar who was also a leper. After the lepers were moved out, around 1500, to the new Ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti at San Zanipolo, the island was uninhabited for several centuries. In 1717 the island was given to an Armenian monk called Manouk Bedrosian, also known as Padre Mekhitar. He and his 17 monks (known as the Mekhitarist Fathers) restored the existing church and built the monastic complex we see today, which was completed around 1750. There is a library here, a printing press, an archaeological museum and an art gallery - all devoted to Armenian culture and art. The monastery was the only one in Venice to escape closure by Napoleon - he favoured the Armenians and claimed that this was an educational, not religious, institution.



The library (see below) was much visited by Byron - he rowed out three times a week during his visit of 1816/17 - to study Armenian and help with an English-Armenian grammar. A small room off the library contains memorabilia of his visits.







The church
An 18th century cloister provides access to the church. There are paintings by Francesco Maggiotto, Francesco Zugno, and Pietro Novelli. More art in the monastic buildings, including works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Sebastiano Ricci, Canaletto and Jacopo Bassano. The church was rebuilt after a fire in 1883.


The monastery in literature
The premise of  A Mapmaker's Dream: The meditations of Fra Mauro, cartographer to the court of Venice by James Cowan is that the story told in the novel is a true one, with the manuscript having been found by a scholar researching the life of Byron in the library of San Lazzaro.

Opening times
Guided tours 3.20-5.00 daily.
Take the 3.10pm vaporetto (line no. 20) from San Zaccaria which is met by the priest who conducts the 75 minute tours of the complex. The admission fee is €6.

Vaporetto San Lazzaro Armeni

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Photos (except the library) by Brigitte Eckert

San Michele in Isola & The Cemetery
Mauro Codussi 1469-78
 


This island now has its own page
 

San Servolo
Giovanni Scalfarotto 1734-49
 


History
The island was inhabited from 810 by Benedictine monks, then Benedictine nuns until 1616, when some nuns who'd been chased from Crete by the Turks took possession. Then in 1725 it was converted into a hospital for soldiers by the San Giovanni di Dio Hospitaler Friars. It later became a psychiatric hospital (or an 'asylum for the insane' as an older guidebook puts it) which closed in 1978. There was considerable rebuilding in 1936. The complex currently houses a centre for training in architectural conservation, Venice International University, and since 2006 the Psychiatric Hospital Museum of San Servolo. A church was consecrated in 1470. From 1733-66 the current church and convent buildings were built, to designs by Giovanni Scalfarotto, with the church being the work of his master, Tommaso Temanza.

Interior
In 1761 Jacopo Marieschi painted the ceiling of the nave with The Glory of San Giovanni di Dio before the Virgin Mary and that of  the presbytery with The Three Theological Virtues. In 1810 a Nacchini organ was acquired from the suppressed church of Santa Maria del Pianto.

Campanile
Completed on the 15th of September 1456 according to a plaque.

The asylum in poetry and fiction
In Shelley's poem Julian and Maddalo he commemorates a visit that he made to San Servolo with Byron to visit a man driven mad by a lover's abandonment. The place is described as a 'windowless, deformed and dreary pile'. San Servolo was also the setting for Jeannette Winterson’s 1987 novel The Passion.

Vaporetto San Servolo (line no. 20 from San Zaccaria)

Opening times
The island has a website as does the Psychiatric Hospital Museum.

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Both photos by Brigitte Eckert

Sant'Erasmo
1929
 


History
The original church of Sant'Erasmo, which was built in ?  at the southern end of the island of the same name, was altered first in the 16th century and then again in the 18th. A drawing by Giacomo Guardi in the Museo Correr Library shows a church with two rectangular facades and a bell-tower similar to that of Sant'Alvise. That church was demolished by Napoleon. The present Romanesque-revival church, designed by Brenno del Giudice and built in the middle of the island, was consecrated Cristo Re (Christ the King) on the 27th of October 1929.

Interior
Inside there is a Martyrdom of Sant'Erasmo, by the school of Tintoretto.

The Famous Artichoke
The island of Sant'Erasmo is now mostly famous for its market gardens, and the Violet Artichoke Festival, at the Massimiliana Tower in the second Sunday of May.

Vaporetto Chiesa

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Both photos by Brigitte Eckert



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