Discover Santa Maria dei Miracoli

Pietro Lombardo's design relies on thin marble revetment panels rather than solid masonry, a technique that let the church rise quickly while still presenting an entirely stone surface, inside and out. The panels were selected and matched for their veining, giving the facade and interior walls their distinctive polychrome pattern of gray, coral, and cream.

The barrel-vaulted nave has no side aisles or chapels, an unusually simple plan for a Venetian church of its period. A raised choir platform at the rear, reached by a curved staircase, and a shallow dome over the sanctuary are the building's two main departures from the otherwise unbroken rectangular hall.

Sculptural work by Tullio Lombardo and Alessandro Vittoria is concentrated on the choir balustrade and the pilasters framing the nave, kept restrained enough not to compete with the marble surfaces themselves.