San Pietro di Castello

A church founded by St Magnus was located here (dedicated to Sts Sergius and Bacchus), and was rededicated to St Peter and enlarged between 774-841 AD. In 1556 Patriarch Vincenzo Diedo commissioned Palladio to draw up plans for a new church, but this work was carried out by later architects. The first work was done on the facade by Smeradi. The interior was not started until 1619. The church is located on the island of Olivolo, which until the development of Sant'Elena was the easternmost area of Venice. San Pietro was also traditionally the seat and residence of the Patriarch, and until 1807, the official Cathedral of Venice (not San Marco, which was the Doge's private chapel and did not have that status). This was due to the fact that although the Patriarch was always a Venetian he reported to the Pope, and the Venetian government preferred to keep him at a distance. The interior is a Latin cross, with a three-bay nave flanked by aisles each with three altars. This was completed by Girolamo Grapiglia, with the Vendramin Chapel on the left by Longhena who also designed the somewhat overpopulated high altar (1649) which was executed by Clemente Moli. This church has a big and light, and very calm and grey, interior. The remains of the first patriarch of Venice, San Lorenzo Giustiniani, are preserved in an urn supported by angels above Longhena's flamboyant high altar. In the right-hand aisle is St Peter's Throne, a carved marble throne upon which St Peter supposedly rested whilst in Antioch, containing a Muslim funerary stele and carved verses from the Koran.
- Lorenzetti, Venice and Its Lagoon: Historical-Artistic Guide (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1961) as translated and with supplementary content by Taryn Marie Zarrillo, 2012/13