The church of San Giovanni Battista Decollato, commonly known as San Zan Degolà, is a religious building in Venice, located in the Santa Croce district.
According to Flaminio Corner, the church was built in the early 11th
century by the Venier family, who lived in a building nearby. The date
of erection of the parish (always affiliated to the cathedral of San
Pietro di Castello) is not known, but it probably took place shortly
after its construction, given that this is the period in which the
administrative subdivision of the city was defined, basing it on the
confines, the parish church. Certainly the church had enjoyed this
status for decades when in 1334 a Bohemian knight, on a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land and admitted to the home of Antonio Colonna because he was
seriously ill, donated a finger of the Baptist to the church.
In
1807 the Napoleonic decrees suppressed the parish and led to the
deconsecration of the church. In 1818 it was reopened and assigned to
the parish of San Giacomo dall'Orio to which it still belongs as a
vicarial church.
Until its suppression, the church was a
collegiate church, therefore it had a chapter made up of a priest, a
deacon and a subdeacon. Initially the canons collaborated together on
all administrative matters of the parish; later each one had his own
duties (the parish priest, in particular, was assigned the care of souls
and the administration of the sacraments), but this also caused the
decline of the spirit of sharing, of the obligations of community life
and, in general, of co-responsibility in the care of the district.
The church is now the seat of the Russian Orthodox Christian
community of Venice, dedicated to the Holy Mirofore Women, and the
liturgies are held regularly every week.
The building is one of the rare examples of Venetian-Byzantine
architecture which has been preserved quite intact in its original
conception up to the present day. Only the facade and the squat bell
tower have different shapes having been rebuilt in the eighteenth
century (the original tower was located roughly in the center of the
square).
The interior is very simple, with an inverted ship's
hull roof. The three naves are divided by two rows of four precious
Greek marble columns with Byzantine capitals (11th century). Of great
value are also the remains of frescoes, recently discovered, depicting
the heads of four saints (John, Peter, Thomas and Mark) and the Empress
Saint Helena carrying the cross against a background of architecture
(11th century). Other later frescoes (15th century) adorn the chapel to
the right of the presbytery.
The high altar is also relatively
recent, dating from the early 18th century.