San Giacomo dall'Orio

San Giacomo's name, dall' Orio, probably comes from a laurel or bay (alloro) tree that once grew here. It's not the most prepossessing Venetian church from the outside (it's one of many churches that are hard to take in as a whole) but well worth a look within.

Founded in the 9th century, this church and its campanile were rebuilt in 1225 to house booty from the Fourth Crusade: a pair of columns, one a massive and rare piece of verde antico (in the right transept) that both Ruskin and Gabriele D'Annunzio greatly admired.

Crowned by a magnificent, nearly seaworthy 14th-century ship’s keel roof – built to limit the church’s weight on the swampy ground – the church is another Old Curiosity Shop of Venetian memories, beginning with a quatrefoil stoup of Greek marble and, in the right transept, a wall of the original church, embedded with sculptural bits from Venice’s past.