The church of San Sebastiano is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district, in Campo San Sebastian. The church is part of the Chorus Venezia association.
On the site where the church currently stands, there was previously a
hospice founded by the friars of the Congregation of San Girolamo around
1393. Three years later, the oratory of "Santa Maria full of grace and
justice" was also founded next to the hospice. Around 1455 these small
buildings were demolished and transformed into a large church dedicated
to Mary, but also to San Sebastiano, as thanks from the inhabitants of
the area who survived the plague of 1464. This large Gothic church had a
ninety-degree façade compared to the Rio di San Basilio.
The
current church was begun in 1505 based on a project by Antonio Abbondi,
known as Lo Scarpagnino, it was finished in 1548 and finally consecrated
in 1562. The project is sober and essential, both out of respect for the
spiritual needs of the clients, whose monastic rule envisaged a style
severe and modest way of life, and for the limited financial resources
made available. The new building therefore has a classical facade, but
with a Renaissance interior.
External
The church overlooks San Sebastian foundations with a
facade in sober classical style, divided horizontally by a high cornice
and crowned by a triangular tympanum surmounted by the statues of three
saints, with Sebastian in the centre. Above the portal, framed between
two single arched windows, there is a circular rose window. Behind the
semicircular apse, along the perimeter of Campo San Sebastian, there is
the quadrangular bell tower, it has a belfry with mullioned windows,
surmounted by a stone parapet and ends in an octagonal crown with a lead
roof flattened dome.
Internal
The interior is a typical
example of a Renaissance church with a single nave, with a square
presbytery which ends in a semicircular apse, covered by a dome and
flanked by two chapels. Inside, the sacred space itself is preceded by
an atrium on which the choir is located, which extends with two wings to
form a body under which there are six chapels, three on each side,
opened by arches resting on pillars and surmounted by pierced plutei
which also act as a parapet of the upper choir loft. This novelty, due
to Scarpagnino, will find imitations in other churches in Venice. Four
statues by Girolamo Campagna, dating back to 1580, stand on the
balustrade of the barc and depict the Cumana Sibyl, the Virgin of the
Annunciation, the Eritrean Sibyl and the announcing Angel.
The
church features an important pictorial cycle by Paolo Veronese, who
decorated the ceiling of the sacristy, the central nave, the frieze, the
eastern part of the choir, the high altar, the doors of the organ panels
and the presbytery. Among these, the three paintings on the ceiling of
the nave stand out: Scenes from the life of Esther. The artist himself
is buried in the church, next to the organ. His brother Benedetto is
also buried in the church.
In the altarpiece the theme of San
Sebastiano is ideally united with that of the Virgin: in adoration of
the Madonna and Child appear other saints, John, Peter, Francis,
Catherine and behind this another saint not easily recognizable.
In the church there is a historic organ from 1763 built by the organ builder Nicolò Moscatelli and restored in the 19th century by Angelo Agostini. It has a single keyboard of 56 keys with a lectern pedalboard of 17 pedals with a short first octave and constantly joined to the keyboard, to which another is added which is that of the Tamburo register.