Santa Fosca (Torcello)

In the same piazza as Torcello's more famous ex-cathedral, the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, the early 11th-century church dedicated to Santa Fosca, built to replace a 7th-century version, was never really completed, and whatever internal decoration it ever had is gone. Nevertheless, the plain shell of the church is the most elaborate work of late Byzantine architecture in existence, a lovely and unique conception.

As in so many other churches, beginning with the Hagia Sophia itself, it takes a central Greek plan and elongates one side to form a nave with three apses; the front and sides are graced by a five sided arcaded porch set on reused ancient Greek columns and capitals, while the crossing is crowned by a low cylindrical dome. Like all the best medieval buildings, this one was built by constructive geometry: both in the plan and the elevation its architects employed the proportions of the ‘Golden Section’ of the ancient Greeks.