The conservation of the facade of the church of San Sebastiano was funded by Beatrice de Santo Domingo, Alejandro Santo Domingo, and Andrés Santo Domingo in memory of Julio Mario Santo Domingo.

The church of San Sebastiano was designed by architect Antonio Abbondi, known as Scarpagnino, and was constructed between 1506 and 1548. The façade of the church was originally covered in a fine marmorino, which consists of plaster mixed with marble dust and was laid directly on top of the brick wall. The original marmorino was replaced in the mid-nineteenth century and again most recently in 1968. The façade is also embellished with Istrian stone cornices and four sets of twin marble columns.

The Istrian stone portal of the church includes relief sculptures of Saints Sebastian and Jerome, while the tympanum is crowned with a statue of Saint Sebastian that is flanked by two additional statues representing Saint Jerome and Saint Cecilia.

The lateral façade of San Sebastiano is plastered in traditional Venetian red, with decorative cornices in Istrian stone. The remains of a side portal and covered stone entrance mark a doorway that is no longer visible from the interior.

During restoration, conservators from the Co.New Tech restoration firm replaced the crumbling mid-century plaster with a traditional Venetian marmorino and cleaned the thick black crusts that had grown over areas of the stone trimwork. The conservators removed the black crusts covering the stonework and stabilized the mountings of the sculptures above the facade.

Furthermore, the modern sand and cement plaster that previously covered the lateral facade of San Sebastiano had also suffered from extensive deterioration, which altered the permeability of the church’s brick walls: allowing the rising humidity and salt deposits to become trapped within the walls, posing a great threat to the vast interior fresco cycle. The restoration of the lateral facade was therefore vital to the safety of the frescoes inside the church.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.