The church of San Fantin (Venetian adaptation of the name of San Fantino) is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the San Marco district, opposite the Gran Teatro La Fenice and next to the Ateneo Veneto.
According to the sources it would have very ancient origins, some
place its birth around the sixth century by the Molino or Da Molin
family (as a private oratory, however some Venetian authors write that
it was the Pisani family who erected the first church) while it is more
the construction is credited around 996 (but in 966 a church with the
same title is already attested) thanks to the initiative of the
patrician families Barozzi, Aldicina and Equilia; it certainly existed
in 1127, the year in which a Stefano Fuscari de confinio Sancti Phantini
made his will. It is assumed that the erection as a parish dates back to
the 11th century, in a period in which there was a redefinition of the
ecclesiastical administration in the city. Destroyed several times by
fires, it was rebuilt in the 12th century by the Pisans and again,
starting from 25 March 1507, on a project by Antonio Abbondi known as
Scarpagnino, with the addition of the chapel by Jacopo Tatti known as
Sansovino, who brought completed the reconstruction in 1564.
Inside, on the main altar, there is a marble statue of about 160 cm, by
Giuseppe Bernardi Torretti, which «represents Saint Fantino in the
typical iconography of the Roman knight / martyr: identical iconography
in a tapestry kept in the same church», this iconography is due to the
misunderstanding of the appellative cavallaro (the one who looks after
the horses) – proper to the saint – with that of knight; in Venice the
saint is considered – for unknown reasons – the patron saint of
scaletèri (confectioners).
In the 18th century it became a
collegiate church. In 1807 the Napoleonic decrees suppressed the parish
and its chapter incorporating it into San Moisè. He is still its vicar
today.
In the past it was affiliated with Santa Maria Zobenigo
and the parish priest received holy water from the latter.