The church of Santo Stefano is a Catholic place of worship in the city of Venice, located in the square of the same name in the San Marco district, not far from the Accademia bridge.
The church was built between the end of the thirteenth century and
the beginning of the fourteenth century by the hermit friars of
Sant'Agostino, who had settled in Venice towards the end of the
thirteenth century. It was rebuilt in the 14th century and underwent
substantial expansions during the 15th century. In 1810, with the
suppression of religious orders, it was separated from the convent and
became a parish church.
The church was often the scene of
episodes of violence, so much so that over the centuries it was
deconsecrated six times.
The church is part of the Chorus Venezia
association.
The church has a basilica plan, curiously trapezoidal in the
central nave with a marked narrowing towards the apse. The
partitions of the facade, being orthogonal to the axes of the three
naves, have a slight bending on the wings with respect to the
central plane. Another peculiarity of the structure is that the
Augustinians wanted a considerable deepening of the presbytery to
accommodate the choir so that the structure is found to climb over
the narrow Rio di Santo Stefano.
The church of Santo Stefano
overlooks Campo Santo Stefano with the right side. In it there are
various pointed single-lancet windows and, in the central span of
the three visible from the outside, also a side portal with a carved
marble cornice.
The facade appears much more imposing than it
is as it faces a very narrow street. In the upper band there is a
rose window in the center and two Gothic mullioned windows on the
sides. In the lower one, aligned with the central window, is the
imposing portal, the work of Bartolomeo Bon who built it in 1442 and
characterized by a lunette in flamboyant Gothic style, whose
perimeter is inflected on the outside and decorated with large
phytomorphic flames , sharp inside and decorated with trilobed
hanging arches. On both sides of the lunette, empty in the center,
there are two slender octagonal-shaped spiers, while at the top of
the arch, above the high relief of an angel carrying a scroll, there
is a small marble statue depicting Christ Pantocrator.
Internal
The interior is divided into three naves by columns
supporting six pointed arches on each side. The columns are
alternately in white Greek and red Verona marble with painted and
gilded capitals in the fourteenth-century style, also of alternating
design in accordance with the color of the shafts. The walls are
entirely finished with a polychrome regalzier (faux brickwork).
The central nave, illuminated not only by the windows on the
façade and those on the left side, but also by lunette windows
opened in the eighteenth century, is covered by a ceiling, typically
Venetian, in the shape of a ship's hull with a five-lobed profile
and stitched by beams reinforced by barbicans about eight meters off
the ground.
At the beginning of the nave is the large stone
and bronze tombstone covering the remains of Doge Francesco
Morosini, the Peloponnesian, a work from 1694 by Antonio Gaspari and
Filippo Parodi.
Above the portal on the counter-façade is the
majestic monument dedicated to Domenico Contarini, a Venetian
general who died after 1533, which was only erected by his
descendants around 1650. The large architectural structure is
divided into three parts by a central element with a triumphal arch
marked by coupled columns, crowned by a tympanum and flanked by
narrower partitions covered symmetrically by a broken arch. The
center houses the wooden equestrian statue of the leader while on
the left wing there is the bust of Angelo Contarini, Procurator of
San Marco and Ambassador of the Republic, brother of Doge Domenico
II. The right wing, prepared for another commemorative bust,
remained empty as underlined by the absence of an epitaph present in
the other two high bases.
Below, to the left of the entrance
door is the funerary monument of the Venetian senator Antonio Zorzi
(†1588) with a marble bust from the school of Alessandro Vittoria,
while to the right is the elegant Lombardic arcosolium by Giacomo
Surian (†1488) .
The polygonal apse, which is also a bridge
under which a navigable river flows, is closed off by a marble
barrier under which the high altar is located.
In the left
aisle is the funeral monument of the famous leader Bartolomeo
d'Alviano, who died in Ghedi in 1515 and was transported here by his
soldiers.
The sacristy houses four paintings by Jacopo
Tintoretto: Resurrection, the Last Supper, Christ Washing the
Apostles' Feet and the Prayer in the Garden. Another great artist
present in this same space is Antonio Vivarini with two notable
works: San Nicola di Bari and San Lorenzo martyr. There is also the
canvas by Pomponio Amalteo with the representation of the Baptism of
Christ.
In the sculpture cloister stands out the funerary
stele in memory of Giovanni Falier, a work of 1808 by Antonio
Canova.
The bell tower of the church, 66 m high, although older, appears to have a late Renaissance layout with a cell with three arches and surmounted by an octagonal drum. On August 7, 1585 he was struck by lightning and the belfry burned down with the loss of the bells; the destroyed parts of the upper portion were soon restored but the cusp was not rebuilt as originally. It is visibly characterized by a marked slope, which, while not presenting particular risks, is nonetheless continuously monitored. After some subsidence occurred in August 1902 – and the bell tower of San Marco had just collapsed – the question of the stability of the work was seriously examined, and in the municipal council someone even proposed its demolition. In 1904 it was consolidated by the engineer Crescentino Caselli. The protrusion at the base of the belfry - that is, at two thirds of the total height - was measured at 1.72 metres, so that the base of the tower had to be surrounded and buttresses set against it on a wider foundation platform. The goal was to contain the subsequent deflection within 1.9 metres, during the restoration and installation of the new control systems in 2005 it measured 2.0 metres. During the reinforcement work, the use of the bells was suspended as a precaution and a small bell tower was built above the sacristy, still visible from Campo Santo Stefano. On the entablature of the graceful building, designed by Giovanni Sardi in Venetian-Gothic style, the inscription Donec major silet ("As long as the major is silent") stands out.
The leaning bell tower houses a concert of 3 electrified bells with
falling clappers tuned in a major scale of D3 (D3, E3, F#3), cast by the
De Poli foundry in Ceneda (TV) in 1879 (the mizzen was replaced with a
new one in 2008, and the old one, now cracked, is kept in the church,
together with that of the nearby former church of San Vidal, cast by
Salvatore da Venezia in 1417). There is also a momentum bell with a
waning D#4 note, cast in 1753 by the local founder Sigismondo
Alberghetti.
Relics
The body of Saint Stephen the protomartyr
is preserved.
Peculiarities
Under the altar of the church
passes a canal, navigable only at low tide.
Cloister
The door
in the left aisle leads to the cloister, dating back to 1529 and
designed by Scarpagnino after a previous fire.
In the center
there is a well curb and it is surrounded all around by a portico with
architraved Ionic columns; the facades had been frescoed by Pordenone
with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Three of these, detached
from the west wall, are now kept in the Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at
the Ca' d'Oro and are:
Expulsion of Adam and Eve;
Christ and the
Samaritan woman;
Christ and the Magdalene.