San Francesco della Vigna
...during the 1500 this area were cultivated with vineyard (vigne). Doge Andrea Gritti started to build this church (he has been buried inside of the church). The building has been finished by Jacopo Sansovino in 1554. The façade has been made by Palladio, probably due to the good job that has been done with the Castello Basilica.
The façade has been drawn by Palladio because Sansovino was not able to join two aspects present in this building: a construction with one big room BUT with a plan of the christian churches of the period. This project from Palladio was so successful that it has been repeted over and over in amny churches. An example is Redentore church in Venice (wich has also a flight of steps, another titpical thing from this architect).
Actually the monastero adjoined to the church is used for some exposition from Biennale, but many of these parts were vineyards. The remaining part of the monastry is a creek where you can find several graves of famous and nobles. Int eh monastry there is also a very old bibliotheque, is said that it’s from the 1260 but to be honest nobody found news about it in documents older than 1437 (to be precise a document from the Pope Eugenio IV). Thanks to many donations the bibliotheque grew up during the centuries but, as many other buildings in the city, has been damaged during the Napoleons invasion. Now it’s used by the Institite of the Ecumenical Studies of San Bernardino, here you can find 80000 modern books and 13000 antique ones.
