Exterior view

The great Franciscan church of the Frari was begun in about 1330, replacing the earlier church which stood on the site of the nave of the present one, facing in the opposite direction. Its construction took more than a century. The tall campanile with its rectangular main body and octagonal upper element, second only to that of San Marco, was begun in 1361 by Jacopo Celega (died before 1386) and finished by his son in 1396. It recalls the towers in Crema and Cremona. The presbytery, choir, and transepts must have been erected by the 1410s, and the nave was built last after the demolition of the previous church. The completed church was consecrated in 1492.

View the ground plan of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.