Caorle Cathedral Site Features

The church is a Romanesque basilica in brick: three aisles separated by columns, a raised presbytery, and semicircular apses at the east end. The plan is early and clear.

The columns and capitals reuse older material, some of it Roman and late antique, which was standard practice in the eleventh-century lagoon.

The campanile is the distinctive element: a detached cylindrical tower of the same date, in brick, tapering slightly and topped by a conical spire. Round bell towers are rare in Italy and there is no other like it on this coast; the form is generally associated with Ravenna, which had a similar Byzantine inheritance.

Inside, the church holds a gilded altarpiece of Venetian-Byzantine work and a group of six apostle panels, along with later additions.

The exterior is plain to the point of austerity -- unrendered brick, small windows, and no facade decoration to speak of.

The round campanile

Cylindrical, eleventh century, and the landmark for miles out to sea. The single most distinctive structure on this coast.

The 1038 basilica

A largely unaltered Romanesque interior, with reused antique columns holding up the arcades.

The gilded altarpiece

A Venetian-Byzantine pala with apostle panels, the church's principal treasure.

The disproportion

A full cathedral in a small town -- the physical record of a diocese that no longer exists.