Venice - Santa Maria del Giglio Santa Maria Zobenigo

Santa Maria Zobenigo was founded in the ninth century by the Zubanico family, hence its name, but it is usually called Santa Maria del Giglio. The interior was restored in 1660 and the Baroque facade was added in 1678-83 by Giuseppe Sardi on the orders of Antonio Barbaro who, as a quid pro quo, ensured his own immortality by having a stone statue of himself placed above the main portal with, underneath, some of his ancestors.

The lower plinths are decorated with reliefs showing panoramas of the cities in which Antonio Barbaro had served: Padua, Candia in Crete, and Zara (left), Rome, Corfu and Spalato (right).

The Presbytery contains an early work by Tintoretto, "The Four Evangelists" (1552-57).