This massive Gothic church was built by the Dominican order from the 13th to the 15th century and, together with the Frari Church in San Polo, is second in size only to the Basilica di San Marco. An unofficial Pantheon where 25 doges are buried (a number of tombs are part of the unfinished facade), the church, commonly known as Zanipolo in Venetian dialect, is also home to many artistic treasures. The brilliantly colored “Polyptych of St. Vincent Ferrer” (ca. 1465), attributed to a young Giovanni Bellini, is in the right aisle. You’ll also see the mummified foot of St. Catherine of Siena—considered a holy relic—encased in glass near here. Visit the Cappella del Rosario, through a glass door off the left transept, to see three restored ceiling canvases and one oil painting by Paolo Veronese, particularly “The Assumption of the Madonna.”

Anchoring the large and impressive campo outside the church, a popular crossroads for this area of Castello, is the statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the Renaissance condottiere (mercenary) who defended Venice’s interests at the height of its power until his death in 1475. The 15th-century sculpture by the Florentine Andrea Verrocchio is considered one of the world’s great equestrian monuments and Verrocchio’s best.