The 1988 to 1998 conservation campaign was funded by Save Venice Inc. with partial support from the Estate of Carmela Gennaro, the Getty Grant Program, and Paul F. Wallace.

The church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli was originally built to house a small miraculous image of the Virgin and Child painted around 1409 that is traditionally attributed to Nicolò di Pietro—although recently scholars have also suggested that the painting may be by the hand of Zanino di Pietro. Commissioned by Francesco Amadi, the painting was displayed outdoors in a calle near the Amadi home, where it became a popular votive image for those who lived in the neighborhood. Over seventy years later, miracles began to be credited to the image. Both religious and political officials agreed that a small chapel should be built to house the painting, and thanks to offerings left by those who visited the miraculous Madonna and Child, funds were readily available to build such a structure.

Pietro Lombardo was contracted to begin construction between 1481 and 1485. In 1485 Pope Sixtus IV issued a papal bull granting permission for a larger church to be built in honor of this Madonna; he also ordered that a convent be built at this location. Pietro Lombardo received a new contract to expand the modest chapel to a church. Both the interior and exterior were sheathed with colorful marble, and these marble slabs were surrounded by intricately carved cornices and several reliefs of saints and prophets, many of which can be attributed to Pietro Lombardo himself. The coffered ceiling of the Miracoli, of painted and gilded wood, was likely added in later phases of the church’s construction, but prior to 1520. A staircase leads to the raised high altar where the original votive image is displayed, decorated with sculptures by Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria, and Girolamo Campagna.

Save Venice’s restoration efforts at the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli were all encompassing. After funding several years of preliminary research to determine the exact nature of the building’s damage and decay, a comprehensive treatment of the church began in 1990.

Simultaneously working on the marble sheeting and sculptural decoration of both the building’s exterior and interior, restorers systematically desalinated and cleaned the church’s stonework from 1990 to 1997.

Another major aspect of the campaign was the conservation of the coffered ceiling with its fifty-two wooden panels depicting saints and prophets and the discovery of frescoes of sibyls in the spandrels near the ceiling.

Nearly every element of the church was examined and treated, including the intarsia doors in the presbytery, the bronze statuary and candelabra of the high altar, and the wooden panel of the miraculous Madonna from which the church gets it name.

A watertight rose window was installed on the façade, and extensive repairs were made to the church pews. The campaign concluded with the conservation of the bells in the campanile.

John McAndrew, “Santa Maria dei Miracoli” (1987)

The Miracoli restoration is documented in Santa Maria dei Miracoli: History, Architecture and Restoration edited by Mario Piana and Wolfgang Wolters and published by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in 2003, with partial funding from Save Venice.

Chorus Association: Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli