The Church of Santa Maria e San Donato is a religious edifice located in Murano, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is known for its twelfth century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

pavement and is said to contain the relics of Saint Donatus of Euroea as well as large bones behind the altar said to be the bones of a dragon slain by the saint.

History

The church is one of the oldest in the Venetian lagoon. It was originally built in the 7th century and is known to have been rebuilt in between 1125 and in 1040 AD, although it is possible that there have been more rebuildings in later times. Development of the interiors of the church and valuable relics are related to the legendary quarreling between the parishes of this church and neighboring church of St. Stefano which lasted up to 1125, when Doge Domenico Michele established the dominance of Santa Maria church by storing the relics of St. Donatus of Euroea in it.

Architecture

Central altar in the Santa Maria e San Donato

The church and its bell tower are built of dark red-brown brick, without plastering. The bell tower stands separately. The main entrance to the church faces west, but the most impressive facade is the colonnaded east side, which faces a canal. The colourful stone

floor of the church dates from around 1140. It measures over 500 square metres and is made of porphyry, serpentine, and other precious stones. The figural images include yoked cocks on who are carrying a fox",
The world of Venice James Morris - Pantheon Books - page 179 a peacock, an eagle and griffins. It also includes geometric patterns that represent Christian themes. The floor has undergone a number of conservation treatments sponsored by the non-profit organization Save Venice Inc., beginning in the 1970s. Most recently, emergency funds were allocated to help repair missing tesserae and mortar supports after the church was flooded by high tides in November and December 2019, submerging the mosaic floor in corrosive seawater several times over the course of weeks. The relics of San Donato are located in a marble sarcophagus. Behind the altar there are four rib bones, hanging from wires. The bones are more than 1 metre long. According to legend, these are bones of the dragon slain by St. Donatus in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. It is possible that these bones are from large extinct

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

mammals.

References

External links

Visa pour Venise - "Le bestiaire" - James Morris (coqs arrogants du plancher de San Donato)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria e San Donato Basilica churches in Venice 11th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Romanesque architecture in Veneto Murano Minor basilicas in Veneto