Chiesa di San Pietro

Belluno's Church of San Pietro preserves paintings and sculpture from several centuries of Venetian art. Founded by the Franciscans in the fourteenth century, it was rebuilt in the eighteenth century after earthquake damage, with a Gothic remnant left visible beside the churchyard.

Why it matters

The Franciscans completed a three-aisled church here in 1326. After the 1709 earthquake damaged the building, reconstruction began in the 1730s; the new church opened in 1750 to the design of Friar Minor Ludovico Pagani. The rebuilding gathered important works by Sebastiano Ricci, Andrea Meldolla (lo Schiavone) and Andrea Brustolon, forming a record of religious art and the movement of works between churches.

What to notice

Sebastiano Ricci's altarpiece stands on the high altar, and his frescoes decorate the Fulcis chapel. Four large canvases by lo Schiavone, originally made as organ shutters, are now displayed together. Two carved wooden altarpieces by Andrea Brustolon came from Belluno's Jesuit church after the order's suppression in 1773 and subsequent Napoleonic requisitions. In the churchyard, a Gothic arch was left exposed when the eighteenth-century façade was set back. A Gothic chapel belonging to the earlier church survives within the neighbouring Seminario Gregoriano.

Context and history

The church's present form dates from the rebuilding that followed the 1709 earthquake. Its bell tower was repeatedly repaired after lightning and seismic damage, reaching its current form in 1882 after the 1873 earthquake. The artworks preserve traces of changing religious institutions: works were transferred after the Jesuit suppression, while older Gothic fabric remains visible beside and within the later church.