Church San Francesco della Vigna

the church San Francesco della Vigna - Holy François of the Vine - is the second large church franciscaine of Venice after Église Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

Located in the Sestiere of Castello, not far from the Arsenal, it is drawn up on Campo San Francesco della Vigna.

History

The place owes its name with the vines which were cultivated there. The ground was given by Marco Ziani in 1253 for the construction of a monastery. A small vault points out the place where, according to the legend, the evangelist Marc found refuge and was greeted by an angel with the following words " Pax tibi Marce Evangelista meum", which became the currency of Sérénissime. The first church of style Gothic with three naves was built by Marino da Pisa. A convent lodged the Minor Brothers of the Observance whereas the conventual minor Frères occupied Frari on other side of the city. At the beginning of XVIe century, it became necessary to restore the building. Two primary reasons led to the rescontruction of the church: the first was the reform of the order franciscain Observing and the second the wish of the Doge Andrea Gritti, whose family palate was neighborly the church. In 1564 it posed the first stone of the convent and the church which would fulfill the requirements of the inhabitants who had moved into the zone of the Arsenal and who lacked a religious center to be able to request.

The current church was drawn in the Renaissance style by Jacopo Sansovino advised by the monk franciscain Francesco Zorzi who based architecture of it on the figure of the Trinity. The nave was to be broad of new step and long the twenty-seven one and the broad collateral vaults of three steps. Its construction was started in 1534. Its sober plan in Latin cross consists of a single nave, obtained by transforming the two collateral ones into vaults, and a major chorus.

To get funds quite necessary to construction, the vaults were sold for 200-350 ducats to the noble givers who could place their blazon there and to be made there bury with their family. To obtain the right to be buried in front of the large furnace bridge, the Doge Gritti poured thousand ducats.

The church was completed in 1554. In 1542 Vettor Grimani and its brother the Marino Cardinal had obtained the right to build the frontage which finally was entrusted by Giovanni Grimani to Andrea Palladio in 1562. The Monastère is composed of two cloisters, most important having been used like cemetery. Here many the noble Venetian ones were buried. The two cloisters offer today provisional exposures and concerts.

The bell-tower, very similar to that of Holy Marc, is one of highest of the city.

Interior

The interior has the simplicity and the severity of the churches franciscaines, with marble doric pillars of Istrie. The chorus which, formerly during the masses, was occupied by the monks, is behind the furnace bridge.

The interior makes it possible to admire an alabaster sculpture of Saint Louis of Toulouse and the Virgin in majesty and the saints of Palma the Young person ((1628) in the 3rd vault of right-hand side. In this same vault, one finds paintings of Francesco Fontebasso representing the Glory of Saint Pierre of Alcantara to the ceiling and on the walls Saint Pierre of Alcantara and Sainte Therese d' Avila , Saint Pierre of Alcantara and the Isabelle queen of Spain , the Death of Saint Pierre of Alcantara and the Assumption of Saint Pierre of Alcantara to the sky . On the walls, one also finds two ovals with, on the line the cardinal virtues, the Faith, the Hope and Charity of Jacopo Marieschi and, on the left, the Religion and the Meditation of Francesco Maggiotto. The decoration of the vault was completed in 1789.

The third vault of left with a dome is the Sagredo vault, devoted to Saint Gherardo Sagredo, died in 1046 and canonized in 1076. It is covered frescos of Tiepolo (Four Evangelists) and has a sculpture of Andrea Cominelli and two monuments with the doges Niccoló Sagredo (1675-1676) and Alvise Sagredo, of Giovanni Gai.

The Grimani vault is decorated, on the ceiling, of paintings of Battista Franco and, on the walls and the furnace bridge, of Federico Zuccaro.

In the fifth vault of left, are two tables of Véronèse the Conversation crowned and the Resurrection of Christ (towards 1560), on the furnace bridge of the right-hand man of the transept the Madonne on the throne adoring the Child Jesus of Antonio da Negroponte (towards 1470), in the Giustiniani vault on the left of the chorus the monument of the doge Gritti , and finally in the Holy Vault accessible starting from the left arm from the transept, the Madonne with the Child and the saints of Giovanni Bellini (1507).

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