Santa Maria dei Miracoli  is a small, jewel‑like Renaissance church in Venice, located in the Cannaregio district near the Rialto area.  It is celebrated for its compact, marble‑clad façade and harmonious interior, frequently described as resembling a beautifully crafted “jewel box” set between a campo and a canal.
 
It stands in the sestiere of Cannaregio, overlooking the Campo dei Miracoli, and is one of the best examples of early Venetian Renaissance architecture. It was built between 1481 and 1489 by the Lombard architect Pietro Lombardo to enshrine a small, locally venerated cult image of the Virgin and Child, believed to have worked miracles.
 
The church is rectangular in plan, with a single nave covered by a barrel vault and a raised presbytery leading to a richly decorated high altar.  Its exterior and interior walls are covered in polychrome marble, with a façade divided into three levels, Corinthian‑style pilasters, and a semicircular pediment above a central rose window, giving it the nickname “the marble church.”
 
The core of the church’s origin lies in a 15th‑century painting of the Virgin and Child attributed to Nicolò di Pietro, which was placed outside the Amadi family house; stories of healings and miracles around this image led to demand for a proper shrine.  The Council of Ten later promoted the cult of the image, and Angelo Amadi commissioned the Lombardo workshop to build the church as a votive monument, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
 
Interesting facts...
The whole church is effectively an early example of “marble cladding” over a core structure. Interestingly the original panels were held on with metal rods and ties, the way we do it today. A restoration in the 19th Century took off the panels for cleaning and then simple cemented the back panels on. A check in the late 20th Century found the cement had broken and at anytime all the marble could have fallen off!