"This is the place I chose for my Preachers"
These were the words that, according to tradition, Doge Jacopo Tiepolo heard in a dream while contemplating a host of angels who, around the oratory of San Daniele and the surrounding marsh, scattered sweet perfumes with censers.
It was the year 1234 when with an official act the Doge Tiepolo donated the place where today stands the Basilica of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo (called San Zanipolo), two holy brothers martyred in Rome in the fourth century, and the adjacent convent, now civil hospital, to the Order of Preachers, already present in the lagoon city for over a decade.
The thirteenth-century church, of which only the lower part of the facade seems to remain, was soon finished, but the importance of the temple, immediately chosen as a burial place by many doges and the ever-increasing development of the Dominican friars, required an extension. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the construction of the solemn arches was undertaken; the work directed by the Dominicans between Benvenuto da Bologna and fra Nicolò da Imola (builders of the churches of S. Agostino in Padua, now destroyed, and of S. Nicolò in Treviso) was completed in 1368, as evidenced by an inscription placed in the first arch on the left near the organ.
At the beginning of the century, some Venetian patricians were appointed Procurators of the S. Zanipolo factory to ensure the completion and continuous embellishment of the temple which is still the largest church in the city today. Finally, almost two centuries after its foundation, on November 14, 1430, the church was consecrated by the Dominican Antonio Correr, Bishop of Ceneda, a Venetian noble and nephew of Pope Gregory XII.
Basilica of Saints John and Paul
Address: Castello, Campo S.S. Giovanni e Paolo, 6363, 30122
Phone: +39 041 523 5913
Site:
https://santigiovanniepaolo.it/Location inserted by
giulia