The basilica of San Pietro di Castello is an important place of
worship in Venice, until 1807 the cathedral of the patriarchate of
Venice; it is located at the north-eastern end of the city of Venice, in
the Castello district, not far from the docks of the Arsenale.
The church has the dignity of a minor basilica and is part of the Chorus
Venezia association.
As reported by the chronicler Giovanni Diacono, the church of San
Pietro was begun around the time of the expulsion of the patriarch of
Grado Fortunato, while the consecration took place nine years later, in
the period in which the doge Obelerio was killed; therefore, it should
have been built starting from 822-823 and completed around 831-832. The
testimony is partially confirmed by the will of Orso, bishop of Olivolo
since 822, which states that it was he who laid the foundations of the
building.
This means that the diocese of Olivolo, founded in
775-776, originally had another cathedral. Those traditions that would
like St. Peter's founded in the 7th century and initially consecrated to
Saints Sergius and Bacchus, whose relics lie here, could have some truth
to them. This would suggest the existence of an older church in place of
which the current one was built in the first half of the 9th century.
Other scholars have theorized that the first cathedral of Olivolo was
the church of San Teodoro, the current basilica of San Marco.
Nothing remains of the primitive building, except for a fragment of
mosaic, preserved in the Lando chapel.
In 1120 a fire devastated
the church; the new structure, faithfully reproduced on the plan of
Jacopo de' Barbari of the sixteenth century, assumed a more majestic
dimension, with an adjacent baptistery, dedicated to San Giovanni
Battista, now lost.
In 1451, with the suppression of the
Patriarchate of Grado and the establishment of the Diocese of Castello
as the Patriarchate of Venice (bull of Pope Nicholas V), the basilica of
San Pietro became the new patriarchal cathedral.
It was the
patriarch Antonio Contarini who decided to carry out restoration work on
the ceiling, vaults and floor between 1508 and 1524. Between 1512 and
1526 the minor chapels were rebuilt and the furnishings and decorations
were redone.
In 1556, having become patriarch of Venice, Antonio
Diedo stipulated a contract with Andrea Palladio on 7 January 1558, who
however withdrew in 1559, on the death of Diedo; this would have been
his first intervention in Venice. Palladio probably arrived at the
prestigious assignment, which was not completed, thanks to Daniele and
Marcantonio Barbaro, who are guarantors of the contract with the masons
in January 1558.
The works resumed in 1596 under the direction of
Francesco Smeraldi, commissioned by the patriarch Lorenzo Priuli, to
whom we owe the construction of the façade. From 1619 Gerolamo Grapiglia
took care of the creation of the interiors, under the patriarchate of
Giovanni Tiepolo.
From 1630 to the fall of the Republic, the
Serenissima Signoria made an annual pilgrimage to the basilica, on
January 8, to celebrate the city's liberation from the plague.
With the fall of the Republic of Venice and the loss of the function of
the basilica of San Marco as a state church, subject to the authority of
a ducal primicerio, in 1807, at the behest of Napoleon, the patriarchal
seat was transferred to San Marco. At the same time, the canonical
chapter of San Pietro di Castello was joined to the palatine chapter of
San Marco.
The canonical status of the cathedral basilica
(rectius patriarchale) and of the basilica of San Pietro di Castello is
regulated by the bull of Pius VII Ecclesias Quae, dated 24 September
1821. Once the cathedralship was definitively transferred to San Marco,
San Pietro was granted the dignity of minor basilica "ad instar
basilicarum minorum almae Urbis" and its parish priest obtained the
title of archpriest; moreover, the archpriest is, during munere, a canon
of the cathedral basilica of San Marco.
With the transfer of the
headquarters, the monastery adjacent to the basilica of San Pietro was
transformed into a powder magazine by order of Eugene de Beauharnais,
viceroy of Italy.
During the First World War the dome was hit
twice by incendiary bombs which caused the destruction of the lantern.
The current plan can be traced back to 1120 when a fire devastated
the previous church in 841. The structure had three naves, a tripartite
façade and circular apses. Next to it stood the baptistery of San
Giovanni Battista, now lost.
The current façade does not exactly
reflect Andrea Palladio's initial project of 1568, but is faithful to
its essential lines. We note a tripartite system, with the central part
raised, resting on four semi-columns, there are bases that end in a
tympanum. The fundamental theme foresees a major order corresponding to
the central nave, and a minor one in relation to the lateral ones. The
whole is decorated with a nineteenth-century bas-relief depicting La
Carità, by the sculptor Marsili. The style can be called classic.
The building has a Latin cross layout with three naves divided by
three arches each, with an altar inside; at the crossroads with the
transept is the dome.
The deep presbytery, which follows the
large central nave of the church, is flanked by two side chapels.
The great high altar in which the remains of San Lorenzo
Giustiniani, the first Patriarch of Venice, are kept, dates back to
1646. It was the work of Clemente Molli, who was also given the task of
sculpting some of the statues present in it, based on a design by
Baldassarre Longhena, who also designed the chapel dedicated to Cardinal
Francesco Vendramin, on the left aisle.
The Chair of St. Peter, which according to tradition belonged to the
Apostle himself when he was bishop of Antioch, is said to have been
donated to Doge Pietro Tradonico by the Eastern Emperor Michael III, in
reality it is built from a back obtained from a ancient Islamic funerary
stele, bearing Arabic decorative motifs and Kufic engravings of verses
from the Koran: Sura III, vv. 192-194 "O Lord! Give us what you promised
us, through the mouth of Your Angels, and do not shame us on the day of
the resurrection" and Sura XXIII, v. 118 "And You forgive! Be merciful!
You are among the best of the compassionate!"
In the right aisle,
San Pietro in Cattedra and four Saints by Marco Basaiti, 16th century.
In the left aisle the Vendramin chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of
Mount Carmel contains bas-reliefs by Michele Ungaro, 1675 and houses
Luca Giordano's 1650 altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Souls in
Purgatory. Also in the left aisle is the Lando chapel, with a mosaic
altarpiece by Arminio Zuccato, probably based on a cartoon by Jacopo
Tintoretto, 1570.
Between the two chapels are works by Veronese
from around 1585, Saints John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, the
Immaculate Conception by Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, 18th century, and The
Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist, by Padovanino.
Among the
major paintings in the basilica, we can identify the Supper at Emmaus by
Pietro Malombra and Antonio Vassilacchi, on the left wall of the portal.
While on the right, by Jacopo Beltrame, 16th century, Dinner in
Simone's House, two statues by Orazio Marinali, Faith and Meditation
surrounding the Crucifix by Jacopo Strada, 18th century.
St.
George and the Princess and the Dragon, by Marco Basaiti; since 1985 it
has been on deposit at the Gallerie dell'Accademia.
In the chapel
to the right of the main altar you can admire the large fresco by Pietro
Ricchi (known as il Lucchese) The adoration of the Magi (1658).
On the choir loft, behind the high altar, there is the Nachini opus
276 pipe organ, built in 1754 and restored by Pietro Bazzani in 1898.
The instrument, with fully mechanical transmission, has a single
keyboard of 57 notes with a first eighth note and an 18-note pedal board
(the 18th note corresponds to the drum), constantly joined to the manual
and with a first octave note.
The baroque wooden case is painted
in imitation marble and has relief decorations in gilded wood. In the
centre, the exhibition, made up of 25 main pipes with horizontally
aligned shield mouths, arranged in a single cusp with lateral wings.
The bell tower started in 1463, was damaged by lightning, and rebuilt
in 1482 by Mauro Codussi, in exposed Istrian stone. The dome on the top,
in wood covered with lead plates and decorated with a small lantern, was
demolished and rebuilt in 1670, on 17 October 1822, struck by lightning,
it was definitively destroyed.
Given the slope of the bell tower,
the bells ring with falling clappers. It houses 5, of which the 2 large
ones were merged by the De Poli Brothers of Ceneda (TV) in 1870 and the
3 small ones by Domenico Dalla Venezia in 1825: I: D3 flat II: Eb3 flat
III: F3 IV: G3 flat V: Ab3