Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy. The town is situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 16 miles south of Venice 31 mi by road; causeways connect it to the mainland and to its frazione, nowadays a quarter, of Sottomarina. The population of the comune is around 51,000, with the town proper accounting for about half of that and Sottomarina for most of the rest. The municipality, located in south of the province, close to the provinces of Padua and Rovigo, borders with Campagna Lupia, Cavarzere, Codevigo (PD), Cona, Correzzola (PD), Loreo (RO), Rosolina (RO) and Venice. Chioggia is a miniature version of Venice, with a few canals, chief among them the Canale Vena, and the characteristic narrow streets known as calli. Chioggia has several medieval churches, much reworked in the period of its greatest prosperity in the 16th and 17th centuries. The church of S. Maria, founded in the eleventh century, became a cathedral in 1110, then was rebuilt from 1623 by Baldassare Longhena. The church of St. Andrew (18th century) has a bell tower from the 11th-12th centuries, provided with the most ancient tower watch in the world. The interior has a Crucifixion by Palma the Elder.