San Martino, Este

San Martino is a romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church located in the town of Este in the province of Padova, region of Veneto, Italy.

History

A church at the site is documented since the 11th century, but was likely more ancient. The decidation to St Martin of Tours is attributed to date to the lombard era. The layout is romanesque with a 14th-century apse that incorporated what was once a small adjacent church dedicated to San Lorenzo. The crossing has a round brick dome. The facades is simple with awkward gothic windows. The nave has two flanking aisles. The belltower is peculiar in that it is leaning outward, a trait present since 1400. An inscription near the belltower reports reconstruction of the church in 1293.

The major chapel has an 18th-century marble altar with two angel sculptures by Antonio Bonazza. The chapel of San Lorenzo has a 14th-century fresco by a follower of Giotto depicting a Crucifixion with May and St John. Along the wall of the nave are fragments of a tryptich depicting the Madonna and Child with St Peter and other saints and a Crucifixion of St Margaret of Antioch.

In the left nave, a polychrome marble altar originally dedicated to St Stephen, once held statues in niches depicting Saints Roch, Stephen, and Sebastian now in the Museo Nazionale Atestino. The predella of the altar has reliefs of events of the life of the three saints: Roch captured and led to jail, St Stephen's and St Sebastian's martyrdoms.^[1]

In the 19th century, most of the canavases were removed, including a painting of the Martyrdom of St Lawrence by a painter of the school of Tintoretto, and other paintings by Antonio Zanchi.^[2][3]

References