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The initial plan for the Miracoli included a simple shrine to the miracle-working image of the Virgin, and did not call for a chancel. In 1484 these plans were changed and, by adding the chancel and convent, the shrine was transformed into a monastic church. These alterations proved a challenge for the architect Pietro Lombardo: a proper church needed not only a chancel, but also a sacristy. Space restrictions prevented him from placing the sacristy next to the chancel, so instead he placed the sacristy beneath the chancel. This consecrated space could not, however, be placed beneath the ground, which in Venice would of course mean water. To solve this problem, Lombardo raised the chancel by approximately eight feet and dropped the floor of the sacristy by two feet. This arrangement accommodated both the chancel and the sacristy, and it dictated the ceiling of the sacristy: one would expect an ordinary beamed ceiling, but in fact it is a ribbed vault.
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