Madonna dell'Orto, Venice

Madonna dell'Orto is a Gothic church in Cannaregio, and it was Tintoretto’s parish church; his paintings and tomb remain inside. The brick façade, built from 1460 to 1464, rises in three sections, with a large rose window, mullioned windows, and rows of niches holding statues of the Apostles. Above the entrance, St Christopher, the Madonna, and the Archangel Gabriel form a stone group made by Nicolò di Giovanni Fiorentino and Antonio Rizzo.

The church began in the mid-14th century under the Humiliati, with Tiberio da Parma directing the work and later receiving burial here. Its familiar name comes from a statue of the Virgin brought from an orchard after another church rejected it. As local tradition has it, the unfinished statue gave off mysterious light at night, drawing pilgrims; the church then received it in 1377.

Inside, Tintoretto’s Adoration of the Golden Calf and Last Judgement flank the main altar, while his Four Cardinal Virtues occupy the apse above. His tomb, shared with two of his children, is in the apsidal chapel on the right.