SPAVENTO, Giorgio

The Chiesa di San Salvatore (known in Venetian as San Salvador) is located on the Campo San Salvador, along the Merceria, the main shopping street of Venice. The church was first consecrated in 1177 by Pope Alexander III shortly after his reconciliation with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at nearby San Marco. The present church, however, was begun in around 1508 by Giorgio Spavento and continued after his death the following year by Tullio Lombardo, Vincenzo Scamozzi and possibly Jacopo Sansovino. They built a large hall church, formed from three Greek crosses placed end to end. Each has a dome with a lantern to let light into the cavernous interior. The fa�ade was added in 1663 by Giuseppe Sardi.

The photo shows the interior.

View the ground plan of San Salvatore, Venice.

This 15-century late Gothic palace takes its name from the spiral staircase (bovolo in Venetian dialect) at the rear. The helicoidal stairway develops within a tower marked by round rampant arches, finishing with a belvedere surmounted by a dome which is linked to the open gallery on five floors, one above the other.

The palace was built from 1499 on by Giovanni Candi (d. 1506), but Giorgio Spavento was the architect of the stairway.

This 15-century late Gothic palace takes its name from the spiral staircase (bovolo in Venetian dialect) at the rear. The helicoidal stairway develops within a tower marked by round rampant arches, finishing with a belvedere surmounted by a dome which is linked to the open gallery on five floors, one above the other.

The palace was built from 1499 on by Giovanni Candi (d. 1506), but Giorgio Spavento was the architect of the stairway.

The mainly Gothic Palazzo Contarini Minelli dal Bovolo is well known for the winding-stairs, the Scala del Bovolo. The palace was built from 1499 on by Giovanni Candi. Its name is derived from the Venetian word for a snail-shell, bovolo. Even the branch of the Contarini that inhabited the palace was named after that singular architectural solution. According to stylistic relationships with the capitals of San Salvatore, the recent scholarship assumes that not Candi, but Giorgio Spavento was the architect of the stairway. The stairway tower is a fully Renaissance work.

The mainly Gothic Palazzo Contarini Minelli dal Bovolo is well known for the winding-stairs, the Scala del Bovolo. This cylindrical staircase, added at the rear of a Gothic palace, twists upwards with a sweeping motion, an effect which is caused by the rising shape of the arched column arcades dissected by a balustrade, which imitate the movement of the spiral staircase. The Venetian principle of transparency and openness in its arcades is applied here to both the staircase and the five-storey loggia, in order to defy the notorious shortage of light and air at the rear of buildings.

The mainly Gothic Palazzo Contarini Minelli dal Bovolo is well known for the winding-stairs, the Scala del Bovolo. The palace was built from 1499 on by Giovanni Candi. Its name is derived from the Venetian word for a snail-shell, bovolo. Even the branch of the Contarini that inhabited the palace was named after that singular architectural solution. According to stylistic relationships with the capitals of San Salvatore, the recent scholarship assumes that not Candi, but Giorgio Spavento was the architect of the stairway. The stairway tower is a fully Renaissance work.