San Francesco della Vigna Church

The first Gothic style church in Venice, S. Francesco della Vigna was built in 1300 along with a small Franciscan friary. In the following two centuries, it was progressively enlarged making it one of the largest monasteries in the city. In 1543, the architect Jacopo Sansovino drew up the plan to expand the church, consulting with the cabbalistic theories of Father Francesco Zorzi. The façade of the church was constructed in 1562 on a design by Palladio. The church has a single nave with several small chapels on both sides, adorned with masterpieces by Fra Antonio da Negroponte, Antonio Vivarini, Palma the Younger, Alessandro Vittoria, Paolo Veronese, Girolamo Pellegrini, Giambattista Tiepolo, Pietro and Tullio Lombardo, Giovanni Bellini