Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli Pietro e Paolo

Known in Chioggia as San Pieretto, the compact church of Saints Peter and Paul was completed in 1432 from the testamentary foundation of canon Pietro Mazzagallo. Its Carrara-marble portal records the benefactor and bears a relief of the two saints.

Why it matters

The church preserves a form of late-medieval private devotion. In his 1386 will, canon Pietro Mazzagallo endowed a small chapel for perpetual liturgy in suffrage of his soul, specifying a site and a house for its chaplain. Completed in 1432, the church has survived confiscation, military use and threats of deconsecration. Its popular name, San Pieretto, reflects its modest scale.

What to notice

The Carrara-marble portal carries the inscription of Mazzagallo's foundation and the coats of arms of the family and the city. Above it, a bas-relief depicts Saints Peter and Paul. The Gothic structure has a simple vertical form and an interior rising to a semicircular cupola. A seventeenth-century Carrara tabernacle on the right of the choir is decorated with putti and instruments of the Passion. A large seventeenth-century wooden crucifix hangs from the ceiling. The altar base incorporates a medieval well-head formerly kept in the seminary.

Context and history

Mazzagallo's testament directed construction on land belonging to the Comune between the Corteleri bridge and the area behind the cathedral apse. The church was complete by 1432, and its endowment funded a resident chaplain. After the fall of the Republic of Venice, the church was confiscated and used for a time as an artillery school and stable. The façade was restored in 1921 based on studies by Chioggia architect Aristide Naccari. In 1941 San Pieretto passed to the cathedral chapter. Restoration from 2011 to 2013 prepared it for its present role as a chapel dedicated to adoration of the Crucifix.