Sant'Eufemia (Venice)

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Sant'Eufemia , now rarely Santa Eufemia della Giudecca , is one of the oldest churches in Venice . The structure, whose current appearance dates from the 18th century, is located on the Giudecca and has been restored since 2012.

View of the Giudecca with the Eufemia Church

history

Statue from the demolished Biagio Church, which was transferred to Sant'Eufemia in 1882

According to the 'tradition', the church was built in 856 under the Doge Orso Particiaco by the tribunician families of the Iscoli or Iesoli, the Selvi and Barbolani. They were among the first inhabitants of what was supposedly still “Spinalunga” at the time, but more likely “Spinale”, later Judeca or Zueca, now called Giudecca , after they were recalled from exile. According to other authors, the church was not built by the Dente family until 952. An inscription on one of the side walls shows that it was consecrated in 1371, on September 3rd. On this occasion, according to tradition, the (alleged) Patriarch of Aquileia , Giovanni Conte, gave the community relics of Saints Euphemia , Dorothea, Thecla and Erasma.

Because of a certain Mina, who had bequeathed all of her fortune to the church, there was a trial before the Quarantia criminal in 1437 , because her parents lived in poverty. The dying woman had believed that her two "invisible" sons would one day become Pope and Emperor. Andrea Davanzago, the pastor of Sant'Eufemia, was sentenced to reimburse the parents for the remaining property. After the establishment of the Patriarchate of Venice and above all after some synodal resolutions , the oldest traditional visitations were carried out from 1461 to 1462 . On August 4, 1461, such a visit was made by Nicolò dalle Croci, Bishop of Chioggia , who had been in office since 1457 , in Sant'Eufemia, whose files have been preserved. He was at the disposal of the patriarch, whom he represented at the visitation, by 1460 at the latest. The 27 questions listed related to the practical knowledge of the order of worship and the organization of the chapter, the care of souls, the economic situation, the question of morality and sexual intercourse with women as well as cohabitation - there was also room for denunciations. after incidents of blasphemy , the residence obligation etc., but also the condition of the workshops, the utensils for the divine service and the acceptance of the synodal resolutions. The church was one of the great landowners on the Giudecca.

St. Rochus with the angel , Bartolomeo Vivarini († around 1499), tempera on wood, 138 × 59 cm

When the nuns of San Cosma e Damiano wanted to build a new, larger church on their property (south of the church), this only succeeded after decades, in which the chapter of Sant'Eufemia started the sale of the extensive land with the houses on it who also lived the priests, refused. It was only with the help of the Senate that this plan was implemented in 1541. According to Flaminio Corner, this chapter consisted of the said pastor, two titular priests, a deacon and a sub-deacon. Already in 1481 Pope Sixtus IV had allowed the abbess Marina Celsi of the Benedictine monastery of Sant'Eufemia di Mazzorbo to move the nuns to the Giudecca.

With the dissolution of the parish by Napoleon in 1810 - Giovanni Battista Albrizzi noted in 1808 that the Eufemia Church was the parish church of the entire Giudecca, but that there were eight more churches on the island chain - it became part of the larger parish of Santissimo Redentore . But the community was restored as early as 1822. The Enciclopedia ecclesiastica of 1862 states in the 7th volume that the community had 2847 members. The neighboring Biagio church fell victim to the construction of the stucco mill in 1884, and the columns in the atrium were moved to Sant'Eufemia.

Facade, bell tower

The north side of the three-aisled church, which overlooks the Canale della Giudecca , stands out through a portico by Michele Sanmicheli with Doric columns . The portico was moved here from the former neighboring parish church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo . In a niche below there is a representation of Santo Vescovo in Gothic style, in a lunette a Crocifissione e donatori from the 14th century in Byzantine style .

The bell tower dates from the 18th century and is about 10 m high. It was restored in 1883. A painting by Canaletto shows a significantly higher tower with a pointed dome.

Interior

inner space
Virgin and Child, work by Bartolomeo Vivarini (1432–1499) from 1480 in the lunette above the altar in the right aisle

Today's three-aisled building has retained the original basic structure, as well as the supporting columns and their capitals . On the other hand, the stucco work on the walls of the nave and under the ceiling date from the 18th century, as well as the Gesù fra i Dottori altarpiece by Francesco Cappella and the Visitazione della Vergine by Giambattista Canal , a work from 1771. A third pala , as the altarpieces are called here, the Nascità di Cristo e l'adorazione dei Magi (Birth of Christ and Adoration by the Three Holy Kings or Magi) by Jacopo Marieschi have been removed from the church.

The ceiling, also made by Canal in the style of Giambattista Tiepolo , tells legends from the life of St. Eufemia, including her baptism in the left aisle, then Sant'Eufemia in gloria in the main and an episode from her life in the right aisle.

The marble group of sculptures La Vergine col Cristo sulle ginocchia ( The Virgin with Christ on her knees ) on the rearmost altar of the left aisle is by Gianmaria Morlaiter (1700–1781). On the first altar of the right aisle is the triptych San Rocco e l'angelo (Saint Roch and the Angel), above it a lunette with Vergine col Putto (Virgin with Child) by Bartolomeo Vivarini , which he created in 1480. In the presbytery there is a scene from the Lord's Supper , signed by Alvise Benfatto Dal Friso from the school of Paolo Veronese .

literature

  • Francesco Basaldella: Santa Eufemia. Chiesa delle sante Eufemia, Dorotea, Tecla ed Erasma , Venice 2000.
  • Patrizia Vio: Nobili e popolani nella Giudecca dell'Età moderna: la parrocchia di Sant'Eufemia tra 16. e 17. secolo , unpublished. Laurea triennale, Padua 2011.
  • Johann Christoph Maier: Description of Venice , vol. 3, Christian Gottlieb Hertel, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1791, p. 11 f. ( Digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Sant'Eufemia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Not to be confused with the monastery of Sant'Eufemia on Mazzorbo, founded around 900 .
  2. ↑ Francesco Basaldella: Santa Eufemia. Chiesa delle sante Eufemia, Dorotea, Tecla ed Erasma , Venice 2000, p. 97.
  3. ↑ After Lucio Zara: Da SPINALONGA alla ZUECA. Sulle origini di un'isola veneziana e del suo nome , Spinalunga or Spina lunga is only applied by chroniclers of the 15th and 16th centuries ( academia.edu ).
  4. ↑ Flaminio Corner lists both explanations in his notes storiche delle Chiese e Monasteri di Venezia, e di Torcello tratte dalle chiese veneziane, e torcellane illustrate da Flaminio Corner senator veneziano , Giovanni Maufrè, Padua 1758, p. 437, referring to Francesco Sansovino returns. When designating Giacomo Conte as Patriarch of Aquileia, however, he was wrong ( digitized version ).
  5. ↑ Traghetto di Sant'Eufemia sul Canale de la Giudecca, especially a San Trovaso , Conoscere Venezia.
  6. ↑ Pascal Vuillemin: "Pro reformatione dicte ecclesie": visites pastorales vénitiennes à la fin du Moyen Âge , in: Mélanges de l'école française de Rome 119 (2007) 221-251, here: pp. 229 and 234 ( digitized version ).
  7. ^ Benjamin Paul: Nuns and Reform Art in Early Modern Venice. The Architecture of Santi Cosma e Damiano and its Decoration from Tintoretto to Tiepolo , Routledge, 2017.
  8. ↑ Flaminio Corner: Note storiche delle Chiese e Monasteri di Venezia, e di Torcello tratte dalle chiese veneziane, e torcellane illustrate da Flaminio Corner senator veneziano , Giovanni Maufrè, Padua 1758, p. 437.
  9. ^ Marcello Brusegan : La grande guida dei monumenti di Venezia. storia, arte, segreti, leggende, curiosità , Newton & Compton, 2005, p. 340.
  10. ↑ Giovanni Battista Albrizzi: Forestiero illuminato intorno le cose piu 'rare e curiose antiche, e modern della città di Venezia e dell'isole circonvicine. Con la descrizione delle Chiese Monisteri, Ospedali, Tesoro di s. Marco, Arsenale, Fabbriche pubbliche, Pitture celebri, Funzioni e Divertimenti e di quante v'è di più riguardevole , part 1, Giacomo Storti, Venice 1806, p. 278 ( digitized version ).
  11. ↑ Pietro Pianton et al .: Enciclopedia ecclesiastica in cui trattasi della Sacra Scrittura, della dogmatica, morale, ascetismo, passioni, vizii, virtu ', diritto canonico, liturgia, riti, storia ecclesiastica, missioni, concilii, eresie, scismi., bibliografia ecclesiastiche, archeologia e geografia sacre. ecc. ecc. , Vol. 7, Venice 1862, p. 908 ( digitized version ).
  12. ↑ Jürgen Julier : Il Mulino Stucky a Venezia , Venice 1978, p. 10 ( online , PDF). The inscription at the new location is therefore (Note 14.): “ECCL. SS. BLASII ET CATALDI IN INS. ATRIVM / B. IVLIANAE A COLL. V. PRODIGIIS CLARVM / ADM. RDLL LIZZA AVSV / IOH. EQV. STUCKY AMPLISS. CIVIS LARGITIONE /A.MDCCCLXXXII / HVC TRANSLATVM / EIVSD. MVNIFICENTIA / ERECTVM ABSOLVTVM POSTERITATI SERVATVM / A. MCIM ".