Home > Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice and has the status of a minor basilica. It stands on the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district of the city. The church is dedicated to the Assumption (Assunzione della Beata Virgine).

The Franciscans were granted land to build a church in 1250, but the building was not completed until 1338. Work almost immediately began on its much larger replacement, the current church, which took over a century to build. The campanile, the second tallest in the city after that of San Marco, was completed in 1396.

The imposing church is built of brick in the Italian Gothic style. As with many Venetian churches, the exterior is rather plain. The interior contains the only rood screen still in place in Venice.

The Frari is a parish church of the Vicariate of San Polo-Santa Croce-Dorsoduro. The other churches of the parish are San Barnaba , San Ludovico Vescovo, Santa Maria del Soccorso and Santa Margherita.

1 Works of Art

• Giovanni Bellini (Madonna and Child with SS Nicholas of Bari, Peter, Mark and Benedict, the sacristy altarpiece)
• Bartolomeo Bon 's workshop (figures of the Virgin and St Francis on the west front)
• Antonio and Paolo Bregno (tomb of Doge Francesco Fóscari in the chancel (attributed; may actually be by Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino ))
• Lorenzo Bregno (tomb of Benedetto Pésaro above the sacristy door; tomb of Alvise Pasqualino on the west wall)
• Girolamo Campagna (statuettes of St Anthony of Padua and St Agnes on the water stoups in the nave)
• Marco Cozzi (choir stalls in ritual choir)
• Donatello (figure of St John the Baptist in the first south choir chapel, Donatello's first documented work in Venice)
• Tullio Lombardo (tomb of Pietro Bernardo on the west wall (attributed; may actually be by Giovanni Buora ))
• Antonio Rizzo (tomb of Doge Niccolò Tron in the chancel)
• Jacopo SansovinoJacopo dAntonio Sansovino ( 1486 November 27, 1570) was an Italian sculptor and architect. He apprenticed with Andrea Sansovino whose name he subsequently adopted, changing his name from Jacopo Tatti. In Rome he attracted the notice of Bramante and Raphae (damaged figure of St John the Baptist on the font in the Capella Corner)
• TitianTiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (c. 1477 August 27, 1576), commonly known as Titian was one of the greatest 16th century Renaissance painters of Venice, Italy. He was born at Pieve di Cadore ( Friuli) in Italy, and died at Venice. He was commonly called durin (Assumption, the altarpiece of the high altar and the largest altarpiece in Venice; Madonna di Ca'Pésaro on the north wall of the nave)
• Paolo Veneziano (Doge Francesco Dandolo and his wife presented to the Virgin by SS Francis and Elizabeth in the sacristy)
• Alessandro Vittoria (figure of The Risen Christ on the west front; figure of St Jerome on the south wall of the nave)
• Alvise VivariniAlvise or Luigi Vivarini (c. 1446 1502), was an Italian painter. It has sometimes been supposed that, besides the Luigi who was the latest of this pictorial family, there had also been another Luigi who was the earliest, this supposition being founded on (St Ambrose and other Saints in the north transept chapel, his last work)
• Bartolomeo Vivarini (St Mark Enthroned in the Capella Corner in the north transept; Madonna and Child with Saints, altarpiece in the third south choir chapel)