The church of the island of San Clemente
An island rich in history, an important piece of Venice to tell about
In the past this was one of the most important and atmospheric of the islands surrounding Venice, and today it is still the site of one of the city’s most interesting churches.
For centuries this church echoed to the prayers of the doges and important visitors, and now it’s the first building on the island to be almost completely renovated, with careful, painstaking restorations.
The Church of San Clemente, where the five-star hotel by the same name stands, build in 1131, faces eastward, towards the place of Christ’s birth. It was dedicated to a Pope who was lost at sea, a man dear to the Venetians’ heart. The original building was in the Romanesque style with a single cross nave, but was enlarged and embellished in the late 15th century with artistic works that we can still enjoy today. Now, as the island prepares for its new tourist destiny, the church has once again become its emblem, the meeting point of past and future.
Under the Camaldolesi family, who lived on the island until the suppression of the religious orders in 1810, the church and monastery were the focus for great new projects and improvements. In 1452 the wealthy Venetian Bernardo Morosini was given the task of restoring the church’s facade, corroded by the salt air. He entrusted the work to Andrea Cominelli, who also worked on Palazzo Labia. As well as putting busts and coats of arms of the Morosini family above the portal, he placed statues of St Benedict and St Romuald among the soft Renaissance lines and symmetries of the stonework, and set a beautiful Madonna and cherub into the moulding framing the arch.
Then it was the turn of the interior, still dominated by a replica of the Loreto Chapel, a reproduction of the Madonna’s home in an artistic 15th-century style frame, kept in the sanctuary of Loreto, commissioned by Monsignor Francesco Lazzeroni in 1644. Completed in a short time, with extensive use of multicoloured marble, sculptures and intaglio, it was moved when the building was enlarged to give the faithful more room to pray. The image of the Madonna sculpted in cedar has belonged to San Clemente since September 1646, when it was moved from the church of the Carità, and was placed above the altar in a magnificent ceremony.
It’s also worth mentioning monuments like those Morosini had erected in the late 17th century, dedicated to his father and brother, killed in the war against the Turks. The altar piece showing St Thomas, with St Bernard and St Francis Saverio in the lower sections, was commissioned by Pietro Ricchi of Lucca. Fine marble was also used for the Tabernacolo, San Clemente and Crocefisso altars, with Corinthian columns. The altar is decorated by four angels at the sides and an altar piece by Antonio Zanchi amid a drapery of gilded marble.
Paintings have also played an important role in the life of the church. Once there were many, financed or donated by generous Venetian families, according to records of the time, by artists like Titian, Pordenone, Tintoretto and Pietro Vecchia. Apart from the frescoes, including the wonderful Gloria di San Romualdo, previously restored in 1880, and now once again in all its original splendour, a only few canvases have survived, by artists like Giovanni Segala, Pietro Ricci, Francesco Ruschi and others whose names may not be known, but whom the experts consider to be among the best pupils of the Venetian school. A small treasure regained, just one of the reasons to visit San Clemente and its island, and the beauties of its modern rebirth.