La Serenissima seems serene as ever inside the cool gloom of this Romanesque church, founded in the 9th to 10th centuries and completed in Latin-cross form by 1225 with chapels bubbling along the edges. Notable 14th- to 18th-century artworks include luminous sacristy paintings by Palma Il Giovane, a rare Lorenzo Lotto Madonna with Child and Saints , and an exceptional Veronese crucifix.
Don’t miss Gaetano Zompini’s macabre Miracle of the Virgin , which shows a rabble-rouser rudely interrupting the Virgin’s funeral procession, only to have his hands miraculously fall off when he touches her coffin. Architectural quirks include decorative pillars, a 14th-century carena di nave (ship’s keel) ceiling and a Lombard pulpit perched atop a 6th-century Byzantine green-marble column.
