The church of Santi Simeone e Giuda, commonly known as San Simeon
Piccolo, is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the
Santa Croce district, on the Grand Canal, to the right of Palazzo Adoldo
and opposite the Venice Santa Lucia railway station.
It should
not be confused with the nearby church of San Simeone Grande; the
adjectives referred to the size of the buildings before San Simeon
Piccolo took on its current imposing appearance in the eighteenth
century.
The church would have been founded in the 9th century by the Adoldi
and Briosi families. The institution of the parish should date back to
the 11th century, the period in which the first administrative structure
of the city was defined, while the consecration certainly dates back to
21 June 1271. The original church was probably a basilica (with three
naves) and built parallel to the Grand Canal. This structure began to
show signs of failure in the 16th century, leading to the decision to
completely rebuild it.
In 1718, on the initiative of the parish
priest Giambattista Molin known as "Manera", the reconstruction of the
Church was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Scalfarotto, as also
remembered by an inscription on the pronaos. To procure the necessary
funds, Molin would have resorted to a sort of lot complete with
extractions.
The works could be said to have concluded with the
consecration of 27 April 1738, officiated by Msgr. Gaspare Negri, bishop
of Cittanova (Istria), former priest student of this church.
Until 1807 the church was collegiate, then a small chapter was
established there, made up of two titled priests who assisted the parish
priest in the management of the parish. Over time, however, the spirit
of community and sharing faded and he was the only parish priest to deal
with the care of souls and the administration of the sacraments.
Furthermore, as a branch of St. Peter's Cathedral, its priests were
obliged to attend the Holy Saturday blessing in the matrix, receiving
the blessed water for their own baptistery.
In 1807, under
Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, the chapter was suppressed, but the church
maintained its role as a parish and incorporated the district of San
Simeon Grande. In 1810, however, the situation reversed and it was San
Simeon Piccolo that was relegated to a branch of the other.
Closed for worship for a period, the church was subsequently entrusted
to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.
It is one of the best-known churches in the city, at least in terms
of its external appearance, as it clearly stands out from the other
buildings and is practically in front of those who come out of the train
station, across the Grand Canal.
Giovanni Scalfarotto, appointed
proto of the construction site in 1721 by the church chapter, was a
lackluster architect, with a career characterized by small interventions
scattered throughout Venice. For this reason, modern critics (for
example Elena Bassi) have expressed doubts about the authorship of the
work and believe that the project and construction supervision were
carried out based on the client's suggestions. In any case, his name is
reported on the internal architrave of the pronaos.
The building
is often referred to as a Venetian re-edition of the Pantheon in Rome,
so much so that it is seen as an anticipation of neoclassical
architecture. In reality, a more in-depth examination reveals how
references to other later works appear in it.
The presbytery,
rectangular and double apse, is based on those of the basilica of the
Redeemer by Andrea Palladio and the basilica della Salute by Baldassarre
Longhena. The large dome, rather than a reference to Roman architecture,
has its roots in the Venetian-Byzantine style. The pronaos leaning
against a circular plan is a solution already adopted in the twin
churches of Piazza del Popolo in Rome, while the crypt enclosed in the
high base is organized on the model of the early Christian catacombs (as
Pietro da Cortona had already done in the churches of Santa Maria in via
Lata and via dei Santi Luca e Martina).
External
The building
looks like a cylindrical and narrow body with a dome (with a diameter of
20 m) covered in copper and a Corinthian pronaos with a triangular
tympanum where there is a marble bas-relief The martyrdom of the titular
saints by Francesco Cabianca from the 18th century century.
It
should be noted that the dome looks like an oval cap in height which
gives the complex a slight vertical thrust accentuated by the lantern in
the form of a small temple.
Internal
The interior does not
host great masterpieces, however we must remember, on the first altar on
the right, the canvas San Francesco di Paola supported by an angel and
San Gaetano da Thiene by Antonio Marinetti known as "il Chiozzotto"; at
the second altar Saints Simeon and Judas, an 18th century altarpiece by
Mattia Bortoloni, attributed to Francesco Polazzo; on the first altar on
the left the Holy Family by Tomaso Bugoni and on the second altar on the
left a Martyrdom of Saint Dorothea by Angelo Venturini. In the sacristy,
on the altar there is a marble Crucifix attributed to Giovanni
Marchiori. In the adjoining anti-sacristy, an early construction by
Tommaso Temanza, above the sink, there is a small relief, La probatica
piscina by Marchiori, with a portrait of the author below.
Crypt
Under the church there is an interesting underground frescoed with
scenes from the Via Crucis and from the Old Testament, in which two long
corridors intersect in an octagonal environment, which has an altar in
the middle. It includes twenty-one chapels, eight of which are walled up
and unexplored. It contains above all the tombs of parishioners whose
identity, however, it is not possible to know.
The building was a parish and then a church dependent on San
Simeon Grando.
In 2006, the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal
Angelo Scola, entrusted the church to the Priestly Fraternity of
Saint Peter, appointing Father Konrad zu Löwenstein, FSSP, chaplain
for the faithful who follow the liturgy according to the forma
extraordinaria of the Roman Rite. The chaplain at San Simon
celebrates the Holy Mass daily and on holidays, confesses and gives
lessons on Catholic doctrine.
Since 2014, Father Konrad zu
Löwenstein has been replaced as chaplain by Father Jean-Cyrille Sow,
FSSP. He in turn finished his assignment in August 2017, having been
transferred to Rome, and was replaced by Father Joseph Kramer, FSSP,
former parish priest in Rome for nine years.