The Venetian Church of Santo Stefano with an Apse Built over a Canal in the 15th Century

The Rio del Santissimo di Santo Stefano in Venice is a canal that runs literally beneath the apse of the Gothic church of Santo Stefano. The arch under the church is so low that the canal is impassable at high tide or during high water.

The church itself was completed in 1325, while the altar section above the water was built during the rebuilding of the fifteenth century. There was no room to enlarge the church, so the hermit monks of the Order of Saint Augustine, who had built it, decided to raise an arched bridge over the city canal flowing behind the church, and on that bridge they built a new apse.

Incidentally, Tintoretto painted three large-scale canvases for the church of Santo Stefano: "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane", "The Washing of the Feet" and "The Last Supper".

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Pentagon adds Confucius Institutes to its list of US national security threats

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Catherine Deneuve on the set of Jean Aurel's film “Manon 70” in October 1967

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Pentagon adds Confucius Institutes to its list of US national security threats

Shabti of Ptahmes, an official under Ramesses II, from Saqqara in the Louvre

Catherine Deneuve on the set of Jean Aurel's film “Manon 70” in October 1967

Anthony Lookout's book on the Osage Tilton and Grace Entoka from Nebraska