Church of San Clemente

According to age-old lore, the church was donated to the city in the fifth century, by the Paduans who had left the city and established the communities of Rivoalto (or Rialto) and Dorsoduro, now part of Venice.

The Church of Saint Clement was first formally mentioned in 1190. In the fourteenth century, it was elevated to a parish.  Nowadays is a filial church of the Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta.

Housed on the east side of Piazza dei Signori, the small church is flanked by the two streets, Via San Clemente and Via Fiume, leading to Piazza della Frutta and Piazza delle Erbe, respectively.

The church is attached on three sides to the adjacent buildings. The terracotta facade is defined by four large pilasters with a large rose window in the centre above the entrance. On the sides, two niches house the statues of Saint Eligio on the left and Saint John the Baptist on the right. Above the large tympanum are the seventeenth-century statues of Saint Clement, Saint Justine and Saint Daniel.

The simple interior is structured in a single nave with a square apse. Next to the entrance is the Madonna and Child fresco by Jacopo Bellini, one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting in northern Italy and the father-in-law of Andrea Mantegna. On the right wall is a seventeenth-century painting by Pietro Damini depicting Jesus in the act of delivering the keys to Saint Peter.