The Franciscans had built it three centuries earlier on a vineyard, the great Jacopo Sansovino - proto of Venice before me - had completely rebuilt it at the behest of Doge Andrea Gritti, who was buried here when I was little more than a boy. 
 
Thirty years later, once again thanks to Daniele Barbaro, the facade was entrusted to me by the patriarch of Aquileia. To me, not to Sansovino who was still in his place.  I was the new one who was advancing, among the patricians of Venice.
 
The theme was the same one that would come back to me at the Redentore and San Giorgio, the same theme for all Renaissance architects: how to make the ancient temple and the lower aisles coexist?