Chiesa di San Felice

San Felice stands beside its namesake canal and the Strada Nuova in Cannaregio. Its Renaissance rebuilding, Greek-cross interior and hemispherical dome give a centralised form to a church with much older origins.

Why it matters

The present church was reconstructed in 1531 following a model associated with Mauro Codussi. The design connects a local religious foundation with the architectural language that helped shape Renaissance Venice.

What to notice

Two façades address the canal and the Strada Nuova. Corinthian capitals and a circular rose window articulate the principal front. Inside, the dome rises over the central crossing. The artistic furnishings include Tintoretto's Saint Demetrius with the donor Gianni Pietro Ghisi, an altarpiece by Domenico Cresti, known as Passignano, and Giulio Moro's statues of Hope and Charity. The altars were replaced in the nineteenth century.

Context and history

The foundation is traced to the tenth century, with a documentary reference in 1177 and a consecration in 1267. The sixteenth-century rebuilding created the present architecture. Parish status was interrupted under Napoleonic reorganisation and restored in 1810, adding an institutional change to the building's longer history.