Chiesa di San Zulian

Renaissance church by Jacopo Sansovino on the Mercerie, endowed by physician-scholar Tommaso Rangone.

San Zulian, Venetian for San Giuliano, is a Renaissance church situated directly on the Mercerie, the historic shopping street running between the Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco. The present church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1553 and funded by Tommaso Rangone, a wealthy physician and scholar from Ravenna. In return, Rangone had himself prominently depicted on the facade, a characteristic Renaissance form of donor self-representation. Inside, the church houses works by Palma il Giovane. Its location on Venice's busiest pedestrian thoroughfare means the church is constantly surrounded by passersby, yet rarely crowded inside.