Chiesa della Pietà

The Church of San Giorgio dei Greci is the main Orthodox church in Venice. The community of Greeks was formed over time in Venice due to the Ottoman expansion. In 1453, the fall of Constantinople brought thousands of Greek refugees to the city. In June 1526, the Council of Ten authorised the community to build its own Orthodox church: work began in 1530 and was completed in 1571.

The church of San Zaccaria was built in the 15th century on the site of a monastery dating from the 9th century, which was destroyed by fire in 1105. At that time it was attached to a Benedictine monastery which the Doge visited every year at Easter, during a ceremony in which he was presented with his headdress, the "Corno Ducale". The monastery was one of the richest and most famous in Venice, rivalling that of San Lorenzo. Witness to the previous constructions, the beautiful 10th and 11th-century crypt is divided into three naves by small columns supporting cross vaults.

The church of San Giovanni in Bragora dates from 829. Legend has it that St. Magnus, bishop of Oderzo, fled his native Opitergium because of the Lombard invasion (639) and that God himself ordered him in a dream to build eight churches, including the church of San Giovanni. However, the first real written record of a church in this area dates back to 1090. In 1464, the church was restructured in the late Gothic style in the form we know today. The work lasted thirty years, from 1475 to 1505, at the end of which it was rededicated, as it is written on the façade, on the architrave of the entrance door, under the lunette.