Edification Installed as bishop of
Ravenna in 546,
Maximianus, a native of Vistar (Veštar) near
Pola in
Istria, continued the building programme of his predecessors
Ecclesius and
Ursicinus, completing the Basilicas of
San Vitale and
Sant'Apollinare in Classe. In Pola, where he had served as a young deacon, he had a new
basilica erected on the site of a former temple of
Minerva.
Andreas Agnellus, the historian of the Ravennate bishops, indicates in
Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis that the church in Pola was the first to be erected by Maximianus. It was formally dedicated to the
Virgin Mary under the title of Santa Maria Formosa. But since it was built in a low-lying area of the city near the marshes along the waterfront, it has been customarily known since the twelfth century as Santa Maria del Canneto (Saint Mary of the reeds). From at least the eighth century, a
Benedictine abbey was attached. The abbey had jurisdiction over the Monastery of Saint Andrew di Serra, located on an island in the harbour of Pola. The church, long and wide, had three
naves, divided by two rows of ten columns each that were surmounted by
'basket' capitals. Like other churches built in Africa and Italy following the
Byzantine reconquest under Justinian, the floor of Santa Maria del Canneto was covered with
mosaics. On the basis of surviving fragments, these mosaics, predominantly green and red, depicted intertwined lilies and lotus flowers together with curvilinear patterns. The central nave terminated in an apse with choir stalls for the monks and the
cathedra of the abbot. In the centre rose the
ciborium. The lateral naves ended in the
prothesis, for the liturgical preparation of the bread and wine, and the
diaconicon, for the dressing of the clergy. Attached to the structure, but independent, were two chapel-mausoleums, dedicated to
Saint Andrew and to the Virgin Mary. Rebellions in Pola were put down in 1145, 1150, and 1160, and in 1193 Venice intervened to drive the rival Pisans from the city. Pola was taken by the Venetians in 1228 and again in 1243. Finally, in 1331, the city gave itself to Venice. But as a Venetian subject city, it was repeatedly raided by the Genoese and briefly occupied as part of the
wars between Venice and Genoa. The progressive destruction of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Canneto seems to have begun when Pola was plundered at the time of the Venetian conquest of 1243 under the leadership of Giacomo Tiepolo and Leonardo Quirini. The last abbot is recorded in 1258, after which the abbey passed
in commendam to the
Church of Saint Mark in Venice. A priest was henceforth nominated from Venice. The maintenance of the church fell to the
procurators of Saint Mark de supra, the Venetian magistrates responsible for the Church of Saint Mark and for the public buildings around Saint Mark's Square.
Despoliation The basilica was stripped over time of its precious marbles and columns for use as building materials elsewhere. Some art historians maintain that these materials included the four carved
alabaster columns that form the ciborium over the high altar in Saint Mark's Basilica. The tradition narrates that they were taken from Santa Maria del Canneto during the reign of Doge
Jacopo Tiepolo (1229–1249). Concerns for the precarious conditions of the basilica were expressed in 1545 when Nicolò Bernardo, procurator of Saint Mark
de supra, instructed the Venetian representative in Pola to nominate surveyors who were to evaluate the nature and the cost of the work that would be needed to consolidate the structure and prevent it from falling into total ruin. No record survives of the report, but workmen and supplies were sent from Venice in 1549. That same year, however, the procurators of Saint Mark
de supra sent
Jacopo Sansovino, their
proto (consultant architect and buildings manager), with the precise task of selecting other building materials that could be removed and utilized to further embellish the Church of Saint Mark and to adorn the staircase of the
Marciana Library in Venice. Of particular interest were the marble columns in the nave which were to be substituted with brick supports. The Venetian architect
Tommaso Temanza attests in
Vite dei più celebri architetti e scrittori veneziani (1778) that Sansovino took columns and marbles from Santa Maria del Canneto in 1550 and 1551 for Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. The despoliation is also confirmed in a petition by the citizenry of Pola to the procurators of Saint Mark, dated 1550, in which they request exoneration from the obligation to pay a tribute of one-tenth of the local olive oil production, citing the removal of columns, marbles,
porphyry, and
serpentinite. The amount of salvaged building materials must have been considerable, given that three ships had to be hired to transport the 22 columns removed, along with the marbles. ==Surviving chapel==