Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo

Description

The place, also known as Campo San Zanipolo, is located in the sestiere of Castello and was, as the view Venetie MD shows, one of the first paved campi in Venice. Campo San Giovanni e Paolo is characterized not only by the huge Dominican church and Lombardi's Scuola Grande di San Marco, but also by the equestrian monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni (†1475), a mercenary leader who served the Venetian Republic. According to Colleoni's testament, the monument should have been initially erected on St. Mark's Square. That being impossible to accept for the Serenissima, the bronze was finally installed in front of the homonymous confraternity's domicile.
The façade of the Scuola, a masterpiece of early Venetian renaissance incrustation technique, is the architectural counterpoint to the gothic brick façade of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Zanipolo in Venetian). In the late 19th century, the church was restored and later additions were removed. Buildings that were formerly adjacent to a southern chapel were pulled down in 1869 during the Isolamento lato ed abside del tempio dei ss. Giovanni e Paolo ed apetura nuova via conducente al Campo dell'Ospedaletto. Also the Calle larga Giacinto Gallina, a broad lane pointing straightly to the church, is - like the well-known Strada Nova - a 19th century urbanistic invention. The other buildings surrounding the place, including a palazzetto of the Dandolo family, are of inferior artistic value.
Campo San Giovanni e Paolo was repeatedly subject of paintings by 18th century masters like Francesco Guardi and Canaletto.

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