Sant'Elena, Gothic church building in Castello district, Venice, Italy

Sant'Elena is a Gothic brick church at the eastern end of Castello, Venice. Its narrow facade has a three-lobed arched cornice, a two-colour rose window and a Renaissance portal of 1467, moved here in 1929, which frames the kneeling figure of admiral Vettore Cappello by Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino. The interior is a single nave with cross vaults tied by carved wooden rods; the polygonal apse has seven sides. Of the adjoining convent, part of the cloister and the central well head remain.

The church was founded in 1028 as a chapel by Augustinian monks. A pivotal moment came in 1211 when the relics of Saint Helena were brought here, elevating the site's importance.

Each year on Ascension Day the patriarch and clergy came by gondola to Sant'Elena, where the Olivetan abbot greeted them with a bouquet of roses; in the cloister they were served raw dried chestnuts and water before the blessed water was carried to the Lido for the Sposalizio col mare. The saint's urn returned here after 1928.

Sant'Elena stands at the far east end of Castello, where the island was joined to the city; it is reached on foot through the Giardini area or by vaporetto stop Sant'Elena. The former convent beside it now houses a foundation dedicated to world peace, and only part of the cloister and the central well head survive.

The wooden tie-rods of the nave vaults are carved in a twisted rope pattern and rest on stone brackets, an unusual detail for a Venetian Gothic interior. The seven-sided apse and its double mullioned windows were rebuilt in the 20th century.