Chiesa Dei SS Giovanni E Paolo

Lonely Planet review

This huge Gothic church, founded by the Dominicans, was begun in 1333, but it was not consecrated until 1430. The vast interior is divided simply into an enormous central nave and two aisles, separated by graceful, soaring arches. Three chapels, each of different dimensions, have been tacked - it seems almost willy-nilly - onto the church's southern flank. Ruskin would have approved of this architectural wilfulness!

A beautiful stained-glass window made in Murano in the 15th century fills the southern arm of the transept with light. A host of artists contributed to its design, including Bartolomeo Vivarini, Cima da Conegliano and Girolamo Mocetto. It owes some of its brilliance to restoration carried out in the 1980s. Below the window and just to the right is a fine pala (altarpiece) by Lorenzo Lotto. Noteworthy, too, are the five late-Gothic apses, graced by long and slender windows.

The church is a veritable ducal pantheon. Around the walls, many of the 25 tombs of dogi were sculpted by prominent Gothic and Renaissance artists, in particular Pietro and Tullio Lombardo and Nino Pisano.