San Giacomo dell'Orio

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The main entrance of San Giacomo dell'Orio faces the canal rather than the campo. The interior is a fascinating mix of architectural and decorative styles. Most of the columns have 12th- or 13th-century Veneto-Byzantine capitals; one has a sixth-century flowered capital and one is a solid piece of smooth verd-antique marble, perhaps from a Roman temple sacked during the Fourth Crusade. Note, too, the fine 14th-century ship's-keel roof. The Sacrestia Nuova, in the right transept, was built in 1903 on the site of the Scuola del Sacramento. This was the original home of the five gilded compartments on the ceiling with paintings by Veronese: an Allegory of the Faith surrounded by four Doctors of the Church. Among the paintings in the room is St John the Baptist Preaching by Francesco Bassano, which includes a portrait of Titian (in the red hat).

Behind the high altar is a Madonna and Four Saints by Lorenzo Lotto, one of his last Venetian paintings. There is a good work by Giovanni Bonconsiglio at the end of the left aisle, St Lawrence, St Sebastian and St Roch; St Roch's plague sore has an anatomical precision that is really rather unsettling. St Lawrence also has a chapel all to himself in the left transept, with a central altarpiece by Veronese and two fine early works by Palma il Giovane. As you leave, be sure to have a look at the curious painting to the left of the main door, a naïve 18th-century work by Gaetano Zompini, showing a propaganda miracle involving a Jewish scribe who attempted to profane the body of the Virgin on its way to the sepulchre.

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