Exterior view

The church, which faces the railway station, is one of the first examples of the rejection of Baldassare Longhena's spectacular manner for a simpler and more rigorous style. Designed by Scalfarotto and built between 1718 and 1738, it has a simple plan that combines features of the Pantheon in Rome with explicit references to the work of Andrea Palladio.

This church, which greets every visitor to Venice on arrival, is clearly based on the Pantheon. But above the classical portico rises a stilted Byzantine-Venetian dome. The interior somewhat varies the Pantheon motifs. There is, however, one decisive change: the congregational room opens into a domed unit with semi-circular apses, a formula derived from Palladio. This blending of the Pantheon with Byzantium and Palladio is what one would expect to find only in eighteenth-century Venice.

View the section and plan of San Simeone Piccolo, Venice.