Saint Domenico

Church in the historic center of Chioggia, simple overall but rich in works of art on display, from paintings to Christ crucified particularly in its uniqueness. Definitely to be included in the visit to the city called "the little Venice". Obviously better if helped by a sunny day.

The interior is very nice. In the bell tower of S. Andrea there is the original model of the church.

The church of San Domenico occupies, with what remains of its monastery and the hospital, an islet at the north-eastern end of the city. At the end of Corso del Popolo, where the column with the lion of San Marco rises, the seventeenth-century Vigo bridge leads into the Calle della Santa Croce. In this way, the gaze is fixed on a bell tower of unmistakable Venetian-Byzantine matrix, with a square barrel, opened by mullioned windows in the upper cell, more evident testimony of the fourteenth-century foundation of the church that rises in its shadow. The building, remodeled in the Baroque era, still houses works that deserve particular attention. Among the paintings: in the middle of the right nave, San Paolo, the last known work by Vittore Carpaccio, signed and dated 1520; to the left of the presbytery, Jesus speaking to St. Thomas Aquinas and Saints Peter, Agnes, Catherine, Cecilia and Bernardo, attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto. At the main altar, a fourteenth-century wooden crucifix stands out, measuring almost five meters in height and three and a half meters in width, dominating the interior of the vast Dominican hall. There are many hypotheses related to the origin and above all to the way in which it would have landed in the waters of the island of S. Domenico: The violent expressionism of the sculpture and the dramatic tension of the face and members of Christ have led to the hypothesis of a Nordic artistic matrix, perhaps Rhenish, consistent with the cultural contacts that Venice at the time had with the Central European area. As for his arrival in the city, the hypothesis that it was fortunately recovered after a shipwreck, a circumstance that fueled the devotion that made him the Christ of the Fishermen, is not at all improbable. A surprising aspect of the sculpture concerns the close-up vision that can be grasped from below: if observed from the right, the face manifests the drama of the Christ patiens still in agony, with narrowed and suffering eyes, while from the left it appears calmed in the rest of death.

The church of San Domenico stands on the remains of a former monastery. The Benedictines owned the island around 1200 and the Dominicans owned the monastery in 1287. The ancient Romanesque basilica was rebuilt in 1745 according to a plan by Pietro Pelli. Today the church is a place of pilgrimage because of the famous and miraculous cross from the 1400th century. Over the centuries, the large cross was carried only six times outside the church in a procession, each time due to its huge dimensions the church portal had to be torn down and rebuilt . Unfortunately the church was closed and we couldn't admire the inside.

It is unfortunately a church no longer operational, open from Thursday to Sunday for free or guided visits. Famous for its Christ on the cross found by fishermen at sea, in the last century. Beautiful in its islet. Impossible not to be fascinated.

beautiful church and a piece of "old Italy", a feeling of Donna Leon arises, is actually not that easy to find, as at the extreme point of land over the Galle Santa Ctoce and Ponte St. Domenico, a real insider tip, highly recommended ..., the Chiesa di San Domenico is a church in Chioggia in the metropolitan city of Venice, Veneto region. It is located on a small island that forms the northeastern part of Chioggia. The island can be reached via a bridge over the "Canale di San Domenico". The island on which the church is located was formerly the property of the Benedictine monks. At the beginning of the 13th century they were taken over by the Dominican preachers, who built a convent there in 1287 with a Romanesque basilica, consecrated to Dominic, with a smaller footprint. After it was demolished in 1745, it was built according to a plan by Pietro Pelli by 1762 on the present-day area. The square bell tower and a double bell cell were built in the 14th century. [1] In 1797 the aristocratic republic of Venice dissolved and was occupied by the French under Napoleon Bonaparte and annexed to Austria from 1798 to 1805. With the secularization of 1806 under Eugène de Beauharnais the tax privileges were withdrawn from the monasteries and the convent buildings were used as barracks. From 1805 to 1814 Venice was part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. The Jesuits then used the buildings of the convent. The church underwent radical changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. The interior of the church has a single nave with a choir and a few side chapels.