The church of Sant'Antonino martire, commonly known as Sant'Antonin,
is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the Castello
district along the salizada of the same name.
Formerly a parish,
then vicarial dependent on San Giovanni in Bragora, today, although it
remains the property of the patriarchate of Venice, it is closed to
worship and periodically hosts contemporary art exhibitions. Indeed, the
central chapel can still be used for celebrations.
Information about the origins of the church is scarce and
contradictory: Flaminio Corner believes it was founded by the Badoers in
the 7th century, while Giovanni Battista Gallicciolli places its
construction in 817, without however justifying the information; the
first documentary citation, however, dates back to 1147. Furthermore, it
is impossible to date the title of parish church, to which that of
collegiate was added in 1711.
In 1810, during the Napoleonic
suppressions, it was relegated to a branch of San Giovanni in Bragora.
In 2010 an important restoration of the complex was completed, which
had forced the closure of the church for twenty years. During the works,
in addition to the foundations of the previous plants, a sarcophagus
from the early fourteenth century and some fifteenth-century ceramics
were brought to light.
Sant'Antonin is thought to have had a first reconstruction in
Venetian-Byzantine style between the 12th and 13th centuries. It
subsequently underwent various renovations which gave it a Gothic
appearance: in the plan of Jacopo de' Barbari (1500) it appears with
three naves, with the right side embellished by pilasters crowned by
hanging arches and with the bell tower with a conical cusp.
In
the second half of the 17th century it was completely rebuilt (the works
concluded with the consecration of 1680), based on a project attributed
to Baldassare Longhena, who was in fact the supervisor of the works.
The exterior of the church is very modest and only the large
circular window and the entrance portal are mentioned from the façade.
The interior has a square plan and a single nave, with a deep
central chapel flanked by altars. On the ceiling emerges the painting
Meeting of Saint Saba and Saint Antonin made by a pupil of Sebastiano
Ricci. On the altar on the right is a Madonna with Child by Angelo
Marinali (late 17th century), originally kept in the upper room of the
Scuola della Carità. In the main chapel, on the left wall, there is the
Last Judgment by Giuseppe Heintz (1661) and, on the right wall, the Exit
of Moses from the Ark by Pietro Della Vecchia (17th century).
Noteworthy is the chapel of San Saba, open on the left side, under the
patronage of the Tiepolo family. Here the doge Lorenzo Tiepolo had
placed the relics of St. Saba Archimandrite, stolen from San Giovanni
d'Acri during the conflict of the same name (although Marin Sanudo says
they were moved by Pietro Centranico in 979) and returned to the
Greek-Orthodox monks only in 1965 This space was renovated in 1593 with
the collaboration of Melchisedech Longhena, Palma il Giovane, Alessandro
Vittoria and Francesco Smeraldi. On the walls you can admire the Stories
of San Saba, a cycle of eight paintings by Palma, while the Pietà, an
early work by Lazzaro Bastiani from the disappeared San Severo (15th
century), was placed on the altar. To the right of the altar is the
funeral monument to the procurator Alvise Tiepolo with his bust created
by Vittoria; even the stuccos that adorn the chapel seem to refer to the
latter.
The bell tower was completed in 1750 to a design -
apparently - by the then parish priest Antonio Fusarini; it ends with a
small onion dome connected to the belfry by an octagonal drum.