Venice has a lot of churches—hundreds—and most of them are very old, but according to tradition, the oldest of them all is the Church of San Giacomo di Rialto. Located just next to the famous Rialto Bridge, this church is said to have been consecrated on March 25, 421, on the very date of the legendary founding of Venice. Documents dating back to the 14th century attribute the building of the church to a carpenter, helped by people from the nearby city of Padua. Modern studies seem to disprove this…
