Discover Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

The Frari is built of brick rather than stone, in the Italian Gothic style shared by only two other churches in Venice. Its scale is substantial for the city -- one of the largest church interiors in Venice, with a nave and two side aisles separated by tall columns rising to wooden tie-beams rather than full stone vaulting, a practical adaptation to Venice's soft, unstable ground.

The rood screen dividing the nave from the choir is the only one to survive intact in any Venetian church -- elsewhere, these dividers were typically removed after the Counter-Reformation favored an unobstructed view of the altar.