Santa Maria dei Miracoli: Exterior east facade and campo

Because of increased popular devotion to a miracle-working image of the Virgin and Child housed there, a competition was held in 1480 to design a new building for the Miracoli. Initially Pietro Lombardo was hired to supervise the construction of a simple votive chapel; plans were revised and stipulated that the structure, now apparently regarded as a convent church rather than a chapel, should be vaulted and have a chancel. Pietro's solution for the revised project was ingenious: he elevated the chancel and placed the sacristy in the crypt-like space below it, connecting it to the altar area with a spiral stair in the bell-tower at the left of the chancel. The Miracoli is the only Venetian church other than S Marco so decorated with coloured marbles; its simple, aisleless, barrel-vaulted form and lavish incrustation make it seem a bejewelled reliquary casket, an appropriate setting for the miracle-working image it houses.