VENICE: San Giorgio Maggiore, church in Venice. Andrea Palladio/Simeone Sorella 1565-97 As an image of the Salute church screams 'Venice!' so too does a photo of San Giorgio Maggiore taken from in front of the Doge's Palace, usually with parallel-parked gondolas in the foreground. History There's been a church on this island, originally known as the Isola dei Cipressi, since the 9th Century. Previously there'd been a vineyard, a cypress grove and a mill. A Benedictine monastery was established here in 982, with a church erected in 987 by Vitale Candido and the Badoer family. The body of Saint Stephen was brought here in 1109 from Constantinople and from then on the Doge and the Signoria visited the church every year on the saint's day, the 26th December, and this became one of the most popular festival days in the Venetian calendar, involving the floating of thousands of candles in the Bacino di San Marco, lasting until the end of the Republic. In 1204 the body of Saint Lucy was brought here too, but her feast day celebrations on the December 13th became so popular that after a storm resulted in the deaths of many people in 1280 her body was moved to the church of Santa Lucia in Cannaregio. The church and monastery were damaged by an earthquake in 1223 and rebuilt by Doge Pietro Ziani, who later retreated here. Palladio's replacement of this gothic church, together with his renovation and enlarging of the monastery, began in 1565. The church was also realigned at this time, its facade having originally faced San Marco. Palladio died in 1580 and Simeone Sorella continued the work for a further 30 years. In 1610 Palladio's facade was finally finished, having been begun by Sorella in 1597. The facade Another temple front, it's a development of Palladio's design for the facade of San Francesco della Vigna. A visit The interior is a Latin cross - stony and monumental, with white walls and thick clusters of supporting Corinthian columns and pilasters. On the right as you enter is an Adoration of the Shepherds by Jacopo da Bassano, an atmospheric night time scene that benefits greatly from a .50 euro coin in the light. Opposite it is an odd Martyrdom of Saint Lucy by Leandro de Bassano (one of Jacopo's four sons, who were all painters in his studio) which depicts strong men and oxen trying to move the saint with ropes. I went up the campanile too - 3 euros and there's a lift - for some stunning views over Venice, and into the nearby cloisters (below right). Art highlights Three late Tintorettos (including a deposition painted in the year of his death). Also works by the Bassanos, Ricci and Palma il Giovane Lost art Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, was removed from the refectory of the monastery by Napoleon and is shamefully still in the Louvre. On September 11th 2007, to celebrate the 210th anniversary of the looting, a computer-generated facsimile was hung where the painting should be. The church in art Monet, Turner, Guardi, Canaletto... Campanile 63m (206ft) electromechanical bells The original campanile stood in front of the church, collapsed in 1442 during a storm and was rebuilt. A new tower, behind the church, was built in 1729 by Scalfarrotto following the collapse of the previous campanile in 1726. This one itself collapsed in 1774, killing one monk and wounding two others, and was rebuilt in 1791 by Fra Benadetto Buratti. In 1993 the wooden angel on the top of the campanile was struck by lightning. It now stands in front of the ticket office for the campanile. A lift takes you to the top, giving panoramic views towards San Marco and into the monastery's cloisters. Ruskin said It is impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard. Observe, also, that when Palladio had got his pediment at the top of the church, he did not know what to do with it; he had no idea of decorating it except by a round hole in the middle ... Palladio had given up colour, and pierced his pediment with a circular cavity, merely because he had not wit enough to fill it with sculpture. The interior of the church is like a large assembly room, and would have been undeserving of a moment's attention, but that it contains some most precious pictures. Effie Ruskin said ...to my mind a very corrupt form of architecture and very ugly, half Greek Temple-ish and half anything else you like, the inside heavy and unimpressive... Letter to her mother, 15th December 1849. The Monastery Cosimo de' Medici when he was banished from Florence in 1433 took refuge here. He brought Michelozzo with him who designed and built a library (demolished in 1614 to make way for Longhena's grander library) to show Cosimo's gratitude. There are two cloisters. One Giovanni Buora's Cloister of the Bay Trees begun in 1517 and completed by Buora's son Andrea in 1540. The other is Palladio's untypical Cl

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