San Samuele

Next to the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal, San Samuele (like San Giobbe and San Moisè, dedicated to an Old Testament prophet) was an ancient church rebuilt in 1685, and still retains its fine old campanile and Gothic apse. Its original front portico was enclosed, leading to its current unusual façade. It is often called upon to take some of the cultural overflow of the Grassi’s blockbuster shows.

Of its original interior decoration, there's a 14th-century crucifix attributed to Paolo Veneziano and a recently restored 15th-century fresco cycle in the Gothic apse, generally attributed to Paduan artists, featuring Christ and the Evangelists, Sibyls and saints.

Little today in San Samuele recalls the reputation it had as Venice’s naughtiest, recorded in a dialect doggerel: