New on 500px : Fondaco dei Turchi by Meidany by Meidany

From the early 17th century through to 1838, the fondaco served as a one-building-ghetto for Venice’s Ottoman Turkish population (thus “dei Turchi”). The fondaco (from Arab: fonduk [1]) then served as a combination home, warehouse, and market for the Turkish traders, as the Fondaco dei Tedeschi served as headquarters and restricted living quarters for German foreigners.

A number of restrictions were placed on the fondaco and its residents, including certain times one was able to enter and leave the ghetto, as well as on trading. Among other things, Venetian Turks imported wax, crude oil, and wool to the city.

After the Venetian Republic was conquered and abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797, the Turkish traders continued to live in the palazzo until 1838.

The building was in a very bad state by the mid-19th century, and was completely restored between 1860 and 1880. Some innovations have been added to the original Veneto-Byzantine design: for example, there were originally no towers on either side..

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New on 500px : San Sebastiano by Meidany by Meidany

San Sebastiano is located on the site of a former hospice which was founded by the confraternity of Gerolimine fathers in 1393. Close to the hospice was an Oratory, built in 1396, and dedicated to Santa Maria Full of Grace and Justice. This was later expanded, and in 1468, was converted into a church dedicated to Saint Sebastian the martyr who was one of the chief patrons against plague and pestilence in Europe. The church is therefore regarded as one of the great Plague-Churches of Venice, built to temper divine punishment, as the plague was viewed in the Middle Ages.

Starting in 1506, a number of alterations, including restructuring and enlargement overseen by the architect Antonio Abbondi (known as Scarpagnino), gave the church its current appearance. The expansion was completed in 1548, and the church was finally consecrated in 1562. It has a single-nave layout designed on a Latin cross. It has an atrium, above which is a raised choir, and culminates in an apsidal presbytery under a cupola. The architectural style of the church is Renaissance. A restoration project was undertaken in 1867

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New on 500px : San Giorgio Maggiore by Meidany by Meidany

San Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th-century Benedictine church on the island of the same name in Venice, northern Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio, and built between 1566 and 1610. The church is a basilica in the classical renaissance style and its brilliant white marble gleams above the blue water of the lagoon opposite the Piazzetta and forms the focal point of the view from every part of the Riva degli Schiavoni.

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