Santa Maria dei Miracoli

A painting

A painting on a street corner was thought to work miracles

In the second half of the 15th century a votive painting stood on the street at the corner of the house of the silk merchant Angelo Amadi. His ancestor Francesco had commissioned it from Niccolò di Pietro in 1408. Local residents regarded it as miraculous, and it became a focal point for the neighbourhood.

A church for it

The neighbourhood wanted a church for the painting, and built one in eight years

In 1480 the devotion sparked a private desire and a public need to build a new church to house the painting. Pietro Lombardo, with his sons Tullio and Antonio, designed and built the small sanctuary between 1481 and 1489. In 1484 the plans grew to include a convent for nuns of St. Clare.

Marble

It is called the marble church, and it is clad in many colours

The marble church is one of the best examples of early Venetian Renaissance architecture. The whole facade is adorned with marble revetments inlaid with squares, crosses, stars and wheels, in polychrome marbles and white Istrian stone. Busts of prophets fill the spaces between the arches, with angels in the corners.

Inside

Inside, fifty painted coffers cover a barrel vault above a marble stair

The interior is a single nave enclosed by a wide barrel vault. The nave is dominated by an ornamental marble stair rising between two pulpits. The vaulted ceiling is divided into fifty coffers decorated with paintings of prophets.

Salt

In the 1990s the marble was found to be full of salt and close to bursting

Save Venice Inc. restored the church over seven years, from 1990 to 1997. The marble cladding contained 14% salt and was on the point of bursting when restorers began the desalination and cleaning. All the cladding was removed and cleaned. The work also rediscovered frescos of sibyls on the ceiling.

14%salt in the marble cladding when restoration began