The church of San Beneto (Benedetto) is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the San Marco district, in the immediate vicinity of the Fortuny Museum. Inside there are works of art by Mazzoni, Strozzi and Tiepolo.
The building has already existed since 1013, when it was included in
the jurisdiction of the Benedictine monastery of San Michele di
Brondolo. In 1435 it was promoted to the rank of collegiate by the
bishop of Castello. The current conformation dates back to the
rebuilding of 1619, commissioned by the patriarch Giovanni Tiepolo, due
to the deterioration and danger of collapse in which the building fell,
and completed in 1685. The rededication took place in 1695.
It
has been demoted from parish to vicarial of the church of San Luca and
is currently closed for worship.
Originally of modest dimensions and in Romanesque style, it faced
east and was composed of three naves with a wooden roof. The
seventeenth-century works changed its orientation by bringing it to the
north, and made it a single nave.
The facade is tripartite by
pilasters, resting on simple pedestals ending with composite capitals,
on which rests a cornice which supports an entablature, in whose frieze
there is the inscription "D.BENEDICTO". Immediately below there is a
thermal window, closed at the base by a band that crosses the wall
longitudinally. Two other small arched windows, almost in the middle of
the facade, side by side a portal with a tympanum supported by
barbicans. The building ends at the top with a triangular tympanum,
decorated with a notched frame.
The bell tower, very tall
compared to the building, was located to the west, integrated into the
facade and overlooking the field of the same name. It was in Romanesque
style, with a conical spire roof and pinnacles in the four corners;
moreover, the belfry was opened by three-mullioned windows. The current
bell tower, modest in size compared to the building, is located to the
north-west, ends with an "onion" roof and the belfry is opened by single
lancet windows.