San Giorgio Maggiore Site Features

Palladio's church facade applies the proportions of a classical temple front to a Christian church, a solution he refined here after experimenting with it at Venice's Church of the Redentore. The interior is equally restrained: a bright, unadorned nave in white stone and stucco, designed to focus attention on light and proportion rather than surface decoration.

The campanile (bell tower), rebuilt in the 18th century after an earlier tower collapsed, rises beside the church and is open to visitors by elevator -- unlike the stair climb required at St. Mark's own campanile across the water.

Inside the church, Tintoretto's Last Supper and The Jews in the Desert, both painted in the final years of his life, hang among the most significant late works by the artist anywhere in Venice. The choir stalls behind the altar are carved with scenes from the life of St. Benedict.