Sestiere “Santa Croce”
Between the 8th and 9th century this sestiere was composed of a group of small islands emerging from the northern lagoon in a ‘fan’ shape near the Grand Canal.
San Giovanni Decollato, San Giacomo dell’Orio, San Boldo and Santa Croce were the only existing churches on the islands.
The area was all swamps and marshes. It’s said that packs of wolves coming from the coastal forests used to roam these lands when the tide was low; according to tradition, the western tip of this sestiere was named “punta de lovo” (i.e. wolf point).
The sestiere developed slowly in the following centuries from the margin of the Grand Canal in the south and towards west, with the drainage of its middle section.
The growth was slower than that of other sestieri and only in the 16th century Dorsoduro achieved its urban structure.
Today the sestiere lives mainly on tourist traffic crossing this area from Rialto to Piazzale Roma and the train station.
Chiesa di San Giacomo dell'Orio
It is a church founded in very ancient times, possibly in the 9th century. It was rebuilt in 1225 and then remodelled in the 16th century and externally the basilical plan with the median apses is preserved, while inside there is a transept,...
Chiesa di Sant'Andrea della Zirada
In 1329, four noble Venetian matrons, Francesca Corraro, Elisabetta Gradenigo, Elisabetta Soranzo and Maddalena Malipiero, obtained permission to build in this place, called cao de zirada, an oratory and a house of refuge for poor women, named after...
Chiesa dei SS. Simeone e Giuda
The church, known as San Simeon Piccolo, was founded in the 9th century. The present building dates from between 1718 and 1738, having been rebuilt by Giovanni Scalfarotto in imitation of the Pantheon in Rome. With a large dome and a pronaos,...
Chiesa di San Simeone Profeta
Known as San Simeon Grande, it was probably built in the 10th century. It underwent notable restorations, especially that in the 18th century by order of the health authority, who rebuilt the floor because of the burial of a plague victim in 1630....
Chiesa di San Stae
It is also called San Eustachio. A dozen designs were presented, and in the end that by Domenico Rossi was chosen. The facade by Domenico Rossi (1709) and the interior by Giovanni Grassi (begun in 1678) show neo-palladian classical influences,...
Chiesa di San Zandegolà
Of very ancient origins, in 1007 it was already a parish church. Its plan is basilical, with three naves, with a ceiling like a ship’s hull, and has been remodelled several times. Recent restoration work has brought to light Byzantine frescoes.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Mater Domini
Enclosed between two narrow lanes and rebuilt between 1502 and 1540 on the site of the previous Byzantine building. The facade, begun in 1502, is in Istrian stone and seems to have been completed by J. Sansovino in 1540, the same year it was...
Chiesa e Convento dei Tolentini
On the occasion of the famous sack which was inflicted on Rome by the armies of Charles V, the Regolari Teatini clerics, whose order was founded in that city in 1524 by Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, who later became Pope Paul IV, and by S. Gaetano da...
Fontego dei Turchi
Built in the first half of the 13th century by Giacomo Palmieri, a political exile from Pesaro, it was bought by the Venetian Republic in 1381 for the marquess of Ferrara, Nicolò V D'Este. From this it gets its name of “Casa del Duca di...
Suggested Routes
Cannaregio – Santa Croce
Type: By feet
Zone: Historical Area | Sestiere "Cannaregio" | Sestiere "Santa Croce"
Ferrovia, S.Geremia, San Marcuola, San Stae
Frari
Type: By feet
Zone: Historical Area | Sestiere "Dorsoduro" | Sestiere "San Polo" | Sestiere "Santa Croce"
S.Simeone, Frari, San Rocco, S.Margherita, S.Nicolò dei Mendicoli, San Sebastiano
Rialto
Type: By feet
Zone: Historical Area | Sestiere "San Polo" | Sestiere "Santa Croce"
Rialto, S.Aponal, S.Maria Mater Domini, S.Giacomo dall’Orio
