The church of San Silvestro Papa is a religious building in the city
of Venice, located in the square of the same name in the San Polo
district near the Rialto.
Formerly the seat of the patriarch of
Grado, it is today a parish of the patriarchate of Venice.
Founded in the 9th century, starting from 1105 it became the stable
seat of the patriarchs of Grado, who had their own palace nearby,
remaining incardinated, together with the city parishes dependent on it,
in the diocese of Grado until the suppression of the title in 1451, when
all the Venetian churches were conferred in the new patriarchate of
Venice with its seat in San Pietro di Castello (with the exception of
the basilica of St. Mark and its dependencies which continued to
constitute a separate jurisdiction until 1807).
Rebuilt between
1422 and 1485, incorporating the nearby oratory of Ognissanti,
consecrated in 1177 by Pope Alexander III, it was remodeled in the
seventeenth century.
Due to the precarious static conditions, it
was almost completely rebuilt between 1837 and 1843 by the architects
Sebastiano Santi and later by Giovanni Battista Meduna. The facade was
rebuilt in 1909 by Giuseppe Sicher and in 1932-34 the ceiling was
changed from a coffered half-vault.
The church currently has a
facade overlooking the Rio erà San Silvestro, while originally it was
oriented in the opposite direction, with the main facade overlooking the
Grand Canal.
The interior of the church has a single nave structure ending in a
semicircular apse. The style is neoclassical and, in addition to the
high altar, there are four side altars, two on each side.
Some of
the church's works of art were partially remodeled in the 18th century,
for example the polyptych on the entrance wall, depicting the Virgin,
saints and sacred episodes, dating back to the 14th century: originally
housed in the nearby Scuola dei Mercanti da vin, it was transferred
first to the sacristy of the church and then to its current location and
was remodeled in 1756.
The high altar is decorated with two
19th-century sculptures by Luigi Ferrari, depicting two adoring angels.
In the first altar on the left there is another nineteenth-century work,
the painting San Silvestro baptizing Constantine by Sebastiano Santi,
while in the second altar on the left there is the panel of San Tommaso
Becket enthroned between angels and saints, created by Girolamo da
Santacroce in 1520, and the nineteenth-century remake of Saints John the
Baptist and Francis by Leonardo Gavagnin.
In the first side altar
on the right there is the Baptism of Christ by Tintoretto, which has
also been remodeled over the centuries and brought back to its original
state by the latest restorations. Also the painting of the second altar
on the right, Holy Family: the Virgin and Saint Joseph presenting Jesus
to the Eternal Father, by Johann Carl Loth, underwent subsequent
modifications by Ludovico David.
Lastly, above the main door, we
should mention the funeral urn of the procurator Filippo Morosini, a
work in the Lombard style from the early sixteenth century.