Santa Maria del Canneto (Pula, Croatia)

This article is about the Church of Santa Maria Formosa in Pula, Croatia. For the homonymous church in Venice, see Santa Maria Formosa.
The surviving side chapel of Santa Maria del Canneto

The Basilica of Santa Maria del Canneto, or Santa Maria Formosa, was a sixth-century Byzantine church erected in Pola (modern-day Pula, Croatia) under the patronage of Maximianus, bishop of Ravenna. The structure was damaged at the time of the Venetian sack of Pola in 1243, and building material was subsequently taken from the ruins and primarily incorporated into the Marciana Library and the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. Of the large, triple-nave church, comparable in splendour to the Euphrasian Basilica in Parenzo (modern-day Poreč),[1] only one of the lateral chapels survives. It constitutes the sole construction in Pola dating to the Byzantine period.[2]

  1. ^ Caprin, L'Istria nobilissima, p. 50
  2. ^ Morassi, La chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa..., p. 21