The church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli or dei Mendicanti is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district.
The church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli is one of the oldest in
Venice: it is assumed that a first construction already existed in the
7th century.
There are two hypotheses about the origin of the
name of the church. According to the first hypothesis, Mendicoli would
be the distortion of Mendigola, which is the ancient name of the island
on which it was built. According to the other hypothesis, Mendicoli
derives from beggars to indicate the very modest living conditions of
the district, inhabited mainly by fishermen and craftsmen.
It is
precisely in this district that the so-called Nicolotti had their
headquarters, one of the factions of the Venetian people, bitter rivals
of the analogous faction of the Castellani, who lived at the opposite
end of the city in the area of San Pietro di Castello. At least once a
year the two factions clashed violently on the Ponte dei Pugni in the
nearby parish of San Barnaba, in a traditional bare-knuckle battle.
The church was seriously damaged by the flood of November 4, 1966.
In the 1970s it was the focus of a complex restoration project, financed
thanks to the Venice in Peril Fund, during which the floor was also
raised in general, continuously exposed to the detriment of high water,
having found itself well thirty centimeters below the average level of
the canals.
In 1973 the church was also used as a film set for
the film In Venice... a shocking red December by Nicolas Roeg.
The 7th century building was replaced by the current 13th century
church, with a Romanesque basilica plan with three naves. This second
building was also extensively remodeled over time, both on the outside,
with the addition of a small porch on the northern side in the 15th
century, and on the inside, which is very rich, where the central nave
was decorated in the 16th century with giltwood statues.
The
upper walls are decorated with a cycle of paintings depicting scenes
from the life of Jesus Christ, the work of various painters belonging to
the Veronese school. Inside there is also the body of San Niceta (Gothic
martyr). Also noteworthy are the 19th century organ, by the Bazzani
firm, and the Pietà, a 1968 work by the South Tyrolean sculptor Guido
Anton Muss.
The complex is completed by a robust Veneto-Byzantine
terracotta bell tower, also dating back to the 13th century.