Let's travel together #316 - Chiesa di San Silvestro (Venezia)

While in Romania, the attention paid on churches and monasteries is fairly decent. Meaning that I am more interested into those that are very old and sort of part of history based on the events they went through, many of them also serving as fortresses/citadels where the stories are always next level.

However, when I am travelling abroad things are quite the opposite as Romania is one of the few countries that follow, mostly, and Orthodox religion. That brings a disadvantage when working for people from other countries as we have different days for celebrating pretty much everything, but also with the advantage of having everything look so different from what I am used to see around.

And during my family trip to Venice, there was no chance not to enter some really beautiful churches that felt like a very close and warm hug.

There is a fairly long list with churches and religious places observed while in Venice, but the one that makes the subject of today's post is Chiesa di San Silvestro that is a Roman Catholic church dating for centuries.

This one was built in the smallest and most central districts of Venice, San Polo. Within this district there is Rialto that represents a more famous name for the sides you can end up in Venice, where I'd like to remind about Rialto Bridge that is hard to miss during your trip, and which is pretty much a good landmark to also see the church on the way there.

Click on the images to see them in full resolution

The beginnings of the church start in the 12th century when it was under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Grado but which began gaining more attention after the rebuilt from 1422, pretty soon after that also being merged with a different building that had more power to show the way.

Sadly, four centuries later Chiesa di San Silvestro confronted with a partial collapse that even if it didn't bring the end to this, it was entirely taken down and rebuilt almost 20 years later by a local architect, Giovanni Meduna.

Happily, this was the single major challenge the church had to face during its existence, ending up with a modern facade and lots of outstanding paintings and sculptures inside that brought more artists together.

The style observed on the inside is composed of four Renaissance panels and a Baptism of Christ, none of them being common for the Orthodox churches I am used to seeing in my country.

What is more likely to observe on the Orthodox churches are the variety of paintings that cover pretty much every centimeter of the walls and ceiling, not including too much of the sculptures, marble pillars or other details part of the walls as seen in the pictures from above.

These are two very different styles, yet equally interesting and not less impressive, no matter the religion you have. In fact, I strongly believe that as long as I have faith, I can find my inner peace pretty much in every church out there. And that was proven countless times already.

Click on the images to see them in full resolution

Every single painting and canvas has a little plate under it showing the artist, the name of the artwork as well as the year when it was added to the church. However, a thing that caught my attention and which is definitely not too common from my knowledge, is that the altar was added on a later date despite the popularity some of the paintings gained and made the church itself be visited by more and more people.

Most of the paintings are fairly popular amongst the locals and those knowing very well the history of Italy and Venice especially. Despite of not being owned by the church anymore, there is one painting that remained in my head entitled The Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Veronese which was sold in 1855 and is not part of the National Gallery from London, so in case you ever end up in that place, do pay attention on the paintings as you might discover bits from more parts of the world in a single place.

There are rumours that more of the paintings resting within the Chiesa di San Silvestro are wanted by more galleries out there and that illegal negotiations are happening with the members of the confraternity with the purpose of selling the works, but everything is currently under control.

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The full address of the Chiesa di San Silvestro is Rio Terà S. Silvestro, 30100 Venezia VE, Italy and you can reach it by foot no matter the side of Venice you are coming from. You might opt for a water Taxi as well, but there are not many options available as there is no public transport for this kind of destination, but only for the islands nearby.

Other places I've seen during my trip in Venice:

• Rialto Bridge
• Narrow Streets And Hidden Cannals Of Venezia
• Shop Windows of Venice
• Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo
• Constitution Bridge
• Chiesa di San Silvestro

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 700+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

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