Restored in 1991 with funding from the Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust and Mr. and Mrs. Marcel Curiel.

Pietro Nacchini was the leading master of the Arte Organaria Veneta (Organ Guild of the Veneto) and famous for having built more than five hundred organs in Italy and Dalmatia during his forty years of activity. Born in the Venetian colony of Dalmatia along the Adriatic coast, Nacchini entered the Franciscan order after a childhood of sheep herding. He was sent to the convent of San Francesco della Vigna in Venice to pursue his theological studies, and while there he attended an organ school at the nearby church of San Giovanni in Bragora. His professional organ-building activities are first documented in 1729, the same year in which he became a priest.

The San Giorgio organ, one of Nacchini’s mature works, is situated at the end of the presbytery and just behind the high altar, and serves as the focal point of the church’s long nave; it soars above the columns that separate the presbytery from the retrochoir of the monks. Noted for the beauty and purity of its tone, the instrument still possesses its original keyboard in bone and ebony; it extends from C1 to C5 with short octaves. This organ is considered to be one of the best preserved eighteenth-century instruments in Venice.

The organ was restored by the Gustavo Zanin firm, with the guidance of project director Ettore Merkel of the Superintendency of Fine Arts of Venice.

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.

Pietro Nacchini (1694-1769)
Pipe Organ
1750

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (in Italian)

Bisson, Massimo. Meravigliose macchine di giubilo. L’architettura e l’arte degli organi a Venezia nel Rinascimento. Venice: Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 2012.