As I mentioned in previous posts the churches in Venice are amazing. Each area or Campo has a church. There are six main districts in the city of Venice and each district has 5-10 Campos or town squares. Since the city is some what dense and each street or ally is small and twisting then these Campos provide and open air gathering place and a natural place for community. Otherwise there is no room for trees, parks, or even space to play. These Campos are all named after Catholic Saints. Then most of the Campos have a corresponding church that is named the same in the Campo. So San Francesco Della Mary is an old church in Campo de San Francesco. We visited a good deal of church which sounds boring, but it wasn't these were amazing places all their own with interesting pasts and unique art and architecture that held interest.
Our favorite church was Saint Pantalon - plain on the outside, but glorious in the inside. Sam said, "It is like Jesus wants us to be, great on the inside with a good heart for others and that the outside really doesn't matter." Having a fifteen year old that gets the importance of this and makes that connection is awesome. The attendant at the church was very kind and couldn't speak one bit of English, but hit lit up the entire ceiling for us with lights and we were the only people in the church.
A huge and cool Gothic church that I (Chris) wanted to see was Gloriosa dei Frai. This was from the order of the Franciscan Monks that were a plan and simple order. Their focus was that the mainline church of the time was not a lot lace for the common people. They worked to make the church a place where everyday people were welcomed and could access the Bible and hear teaching. The church also has works by Donatello and Titian. The art is this church rivals any in all of Venice in my book. The ceiling his a ships keel design with many wooden beams supporting the roof. Each of the huge and long beans has carved designs in them. It is like looking at a gigantic ship frame that is inverted and placed on the ceiling. This probably is the longest and largest church in Venice as far as holding people for a service.
Off the beaten path was San Francesco della Virgin. It seemed an active church. With real people still serving the community. The priest was in the church talking with folks and he was smiling and genuine smile...not the car salesman type grin that one wants to run from.
St. Mark's church was what you have to see in Venice. It was originally constructed in 1050 AD. I like what Holden said about this church, "It either has a whole bunch of stuff that was stolen or the stuff is so bright that you can't even see it.". There is no doubt that this church was built for all of the wrong reasons that one should build a church....to impress and bring wealth and power to the city...really completely the wrong reason if anyone would have taken a look at what Jesus said about "the Church." The actual bones of St. Mark were stolen from Constantinople around 1000 AD and brought to Venice to give the city a major "relic" and make it "legitimate". The bronze horses atop (now replicas and the originals are tucked away) were also stolen. Much of the ancient mosaics in the church and some of the gold leaf guided were were stolen from Byzantine churches as well. It was worth going into and it was magnificent, but the place just had an odd feel about it for sure.
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