San Pietro Martire () is a

Roman catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

church in

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was o ...

, near

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

The church was edificated in 1348 along with a Dominican convent, and was originally dedicated to

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

. In 1474 a fire razed it to the ground and in 1511 it was rebuilt to the current appearance. It was closed on 1806, a few years after the

fall of the Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice was dissolved and dismembered by the French general Napoleon Bonaparte and the Habsburg monarchy on 12 May 1797, ending approximately 1,100 years of its existence. It was the final action of Napoleon's Italian campaign ...

, and reopened in 1813. It is currently one of the two main parish churches in the island of Murano.

Description

Chiesa di San Pietro Martire External Wall

The façade is in naked brickwork, divided in three sections and with a 16th-century portal, which is surmounted by a large

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

. On the left façade is a portico with Renaissance arcades and columns, perhaps what remains of the original cloister. On the same side is the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, dating to 1498-1502. The interior is on the basilica plan, with three naves divided by two series of large columns, and a wooden ceiling. The presbytery is quite large, with

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

s and two small side chapels. Aside from the

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

, there other minor altars, three for each nave. Artworks in the church include a ''Baptism of Christ'' attributed to

Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...

, in the right nave, which also houses two works by

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...

: an ''Assumption with Saints'' (1510–1513) and the

Barbarigo Altarpiece The Barbarigo Altarpiece or ''Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angel Musicians and Saint Mark, Saint Augustine and Doge Agostino Barbarigo'' is a 1488 (dated on the throne) oil painting on canvas by Giovanni Bellini, now in the church of San Pie ...

(1488), taken from the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Palma il Giovane Iacopo Negretti (1548/50 – 14 October 1628), best known as Jacopo or Giacomo Palma il Giovane or simply Palma Giovane ('Young Palma'), was an Italian painter from Venice and a notable exponent of the Venetian school. After Tintoretto's death ...

's ''San Nicòlo, Santa Lucia, San Carlo Borromeo'' also features on the right wall. In the right wing is the Ballarin Chapel, built in 1506 after the death of the eponymous glassmaker from Murano. Other paintings include a ''St. Jerome in the Desert'' by

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...

(also from Santa Maria degli Angeli), the ''Barcaioli Altarpiece'' by

Giovanni Agostino da Lodi Giovanni Agostino da Lodi was an Italian painter who was active from c. 1495 to c. 1525. The attribution of his works has been dubious for centuries, until his style and career was defined by the American art historian Bernard Berenson. One of ...

(c. 1500), a ''Deposition from the Cross'' by

Giuseppe Porta Giuseppe Porta (1520–1575), also known as Giuseppe Salviati, was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period, active mostly in Venice. Biography Caterina d’Alessandria con i Santi Gerolamo, Giovanni Battista, Giacomo Apostolo San Fr ...

, a 1495 ''Ecce Homo'' (perhaps from the destroyed church of Santo Stefano in Murano).

Sources

External links

San Pietro Martire - Murano - 1511
{{Authority control Roman Catholic churches completed in 1511 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Pietro Martire Renaissance architecture in Venice Murano 1511 establishments in Italy