Square of St. John and St. Paul

The Basilica of Saints John and Paul is located in the Venetian quarter of Castello. This church is considered a kind of urban pantheon. According to legend, the basilica was built under Doge Jacopo Tiepolo, who in 1234 gave the Dominicans arrived in Venice the chapel of St. Daniel. The church was dedicated to two Roman martyrs John and Paul. At the same time a monastery was built with the temple.

Architecturally, the building is a vivid example of Venetian Gothic and is typical of monastic churches. The facade is made of brick and divided into three parts by lysenes (flat vertical protrusions). In the central part of the facade - a large round window, in the side - round windows of smaller diameter. On the cornice decorated with marble are statues of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic and St. Peter the Martyr of Verona. At the bottom of the facade are six Gothic arches and Byzantine reliefs.

To the right of the church there is a famous bronze monument dedicated to the condottière Bartolomeo Colleoni, the work of the sculptor Andrea Verrocchio. This statue is the second full-scale equestrian monument of the Renaissance.