San Salvador
A cannonball from an 1849 Austrian bombardment is still lodged in the base of the left facade column — and that is before you step inside.
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Three Greek crosses placed end to end, each capped with a dome and lantern, make the interior unexpectedly bright for a 16th-century church. The high altar holds Titian's Transfiguration; his Annunciation is on the south wall. Funerary monuments to Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, and three doges fill the side walls. The facade — added 1663 — hides Sansovino's cloisters in the adjoining monastery behind it.
What to look for
- The cannonball embedded in the column base at bottom-left of the facade, a relic of the 1849 Austrian siege
- Titian's Transfiguration on the high altar and his Annunciation on the south wall — both in the same room
- Alessandro Vittoria's north-wall altar with sculpted figures of St. Roch and St. Sebastian
Sits directly on the Mercerie, Venice's main shopping street between Rialto and San Marco — no detour needed, just walk in off the arcade.
San Salvador is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Venice, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Venice pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Venice
- St Mark's BasilicaThe Doge's private chapel turned war-trophy hall — every marble slab and bronze horse was taken from somewhere else.
- Doge's PalaceGovernment offices, a jail, and the Doge's private rooms — all under one Venetian Gothic roof on the lagoon edge.
- Grand CanalVenice's main street is water — a 3.8 km reverse-S where noble families spent fortunes trying to outshine each other in stone and marble.
- Piazza San MarcoNapoleon called it "the drawing room of Europe" — then stripped it of its four horses and shipped them to Paris.
- Rialto BridgePredicted to collapse before it opened, this single-span stone arch has carried Venice's Grand Canal traffic since 1591.
- Bridge of SighsLord Byron named it in the 19th century — condemned men crossing in 1600 took their last look at Venice through stone-barred windows before the cells closed behind them.