The church of San Biagio, also known as San Biagio dei Marinai, is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the Castello district. The church, despite being in the territory of the Patriarchate of Venice, is subject to the military ordinariate for Italy. The current rector is the military chaplain Don Giovanni Medeot.
This area was very different in the 19th century, when the famous
granaries of Venice stood here, which were demolished to make room for
new housing areas after the fall of the Republic.
The first
temple dates back to the 11th century, then there were various
renovations including the church in 1332, when the first granaries were
built here, which gave the field the shape that would become definitive
until the 19th century.
Since it was built very close to the
Venice arsenal, many of the Greek workers chose it as their parish, and
many Orthodox priests were hosted here, by decree of the Venetian
Senate, until the construction of San Giorgio dei Greci at the beginning
of the 16th century.
Even San Biagio was suppressed in the 19th
century on the initiative of the new French government, being robbed of
all its furnishings. It was then reopened for worship by the Imperial
Royal Austrian Navy, which transported inside the floors and altars of
the church of Sant'Anna, now suppressed. Then it became the property of
the Navy, once the Veneto passed under Italy (1866).
This
returned it to the state property in 1958, which through the water
magistrate, and the Superintendency for cultural heritage, restored it
to then donate it to the Naval History Museum of Venice in 1991. Today
it is a military parish, and an integral part of the Naval History
Museum. In 2001, with a decree of the then military ordinary Giuseppe
Mani, the church was erected as a military parish for the Navy and for
the other armed forces operating in Venice, subjecting it to the
military ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The first building built here in the 9th century had three naves, and
in Byzantine style, with the facade facing the churchyard, which
disappeared with the renovation of 1332.
This last restructuring
has left no documented trace, so there is no trace. The last renovation
dates back to the eighteenth century (1749-1754), by the Proto
dell'Arsenale Filippo Rossi, and was consecrated in 1757.
The
facade is in two architectural orders, and has the particularity of
having red exposed bricks and white Istrian marble. The triangular
tympanum is the right end of the crowning.
After the suppression
in the 19th century and the depredation it suffered, it was once again
furnished with parts from other churches. The altars come from the
church of Sant'Anna, now deconsecrated. The funeral monument to Captain
da Mar Angelo Emo, hero of the battle with the bey of Tunis Hammudah,
1765, who died in 1792 by Torretto comes from the demolished church of
Santa Maria dei Servi.
Here lies in an urn placed on the left
wall in the presbytery the heart of Frederick Francis of Habsburg,
buried in the grand priory church of the Order of Malta, Grand Duke of
Austria, in love with the city of Venice. Since 4 December 2011, the day
of its placement which took place with a solemn ceremony, the Saint
Barbara patroness of the Navy has been preserved, the work of the
painter Giuseppe Frascaroli.
3 February, Saint Biagio bishop and martyr, titular of the church
(blessing of the throat)
May 8, dedication of the church
December
4, Saint Barbara virgin and martyr, patroness of the Navy