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The Benedictine monastery, located opposite the Doge’s Palace on the island of San Giorgio, was founded in AD 982. The present church, begun by Andrea Palladio in 1566, was the fifth on the site, according to Francesco Sansovino, replacing one consecrated in 1419. When Venice was occupied by Napoleon in 1797, the monastery became a garrison for French, and later Austrian, troops whose tenure damaged the buildings. The library, archive, and most portable works of art were removed from the island and never fully restituted. Restored to the Benedictines, the church was reconsecrated in 1808.
Began by Palladio in 1566, the complex of San Giorgio Maggiore, on a small island of the same name in the basin of San Marco, was completed after his death with some alterations. It includes a church, a little harbour protected by unusual lighthouse towers, an immense monastery, and a tall bell tower, built in the late eighteenth century to a design that imitates the bell tower of San Marco, thus emphasizing the relationship between these two monumental complexes that face each other across the water.
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