Other Restorations
Church of San Samuele | Church of San Lio | Monumental Arch | Cornaro Chapel | Saint Mark Healing the Cobbler Anianus | Four Wooden Poles | Façade of Scuola Dalmata | Sarcophagus of Giovanni Priuli | Marco Polo Arch | Tombstones, New Jewish Cemetery, Lido |   Bernabò Chapel and Relief of the Coronation of the Virgin | Photographs of Venetian Architecture and Sculpture  |  19th-Century Glass-Plate Negatives of Venice from the Ferdinando Ongania Collection  |  St. Martin and the Beggar  | Madonna with Child and St. Peter |  Crucifix

  
Façade of Scuola Dalmata, called Scuola San Giorgio degli Schiavoni

Architect: Giovanni de Zan, early sixteenth century
Location: Scuola Dalmata dei Santi Giorgio e Trifone, Castello
Medium: Istrian Stone
Proposed treatment: Cleaning and Restoration
Sponsored by: The California Chapter, Save Venice Inc.

The Venetian Republic always placed great importance on trade relations with Dalmatia, its neighbor across the Adriatic Sea. The rapport with the Dalmatian Slavs (known to the Italians as Schiavoni) became still more intense at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when coastal regions of Dalmatia came under the power of the Republic. In 1451, the Schiavoni in Venice united to form a guild under their patron saints, Saint George, Saint Tryphone, and Saint Jerome. Then, in the early sixteenth century, the Dalmatian community built its own Guild Hall in Castello. The guild's official name was Scuola Dalmata dei Santi Giorgio e Trifone, although the Scuola is commonly known to Venetians as Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni.

Giovanni de Zan designed the façade of the Scuola in the Sansovino style. Over the doorway is a relief dated 1552 by Pietro da Salò (also a follower of Sansovino) showing Saint George and the Dragon. Directly above this is a fourteenth-century relief of the Virgin enthroned between Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine.

Due to the perilous condition of the Istrian stone facings, which had blackened dramatically due to age and pollutants, the Superintendency of Architectural and Environmental Heritage of Venice classified the restoration of the façade a priority. Cleaning of the stone surface and consolidation of the decorative elements, including the two reliefs, greatly improved the appearance of the building and restored yet another Scuola to its former glory.