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Le Convertite
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History
Founded in 1534 as part of a complex that also included an Augustinian convent and a
hospice for reformed prostitutes and other sexually 'tainted' women. Restoration work on the church later in
the same century was paid for by the merchant Bartolomeo Bontempelli. Originally named for St Mary Magdelene
it became known as Le Convertite to reflect its role in converting
'fallen' women.
The institution soon became notorious, however, due to
its rector Fra Giovanni Pietro Leon using the 400 nuns as his personal
harem. He would 'test' the women when they came to confess by fondling
them during confession - if they
resisted he would congratulate them on their resisting temptation. And
then imprison and punish them until they gave in. He was denounced to the Council of Ten in 1561 and beheaded in
Piazza San Marco. It took 13 attempts with the axe, evidently, before his
head was removed with a knife. This was seen as evidence that beheading
was deemed by God as too light a punishment for a man so wicked. and his remains burned.Suppressed by the French in
1806, the complex became a hospital before the Austrians made it into a
jail in 1857. It is still a women's prison, the entrance is
to the right of the façade in the photo.
On Thursday mornings organic fruit and vegetables grown by the inmates in
the prison gardens are sold from a stall in front of the church. Be
prepared for fighting off sharp-elbowed elderly locals though.
The church on TV
In an episode of a 2010 Jamie Oliver cookery series, Jamie does Venice,
he visits the prison, to pick vegetables from their gardens and cook
minestrone soup for some surly inmates.
Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
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Redentore
Andrea Palladio/Antonio Da Ponte 1577-92
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Theatrical!
History
Fiorenza Corner and Teodosia Scripiana built a church and monastery to St
Mary of the Angels, given to Fra Bonaventura degli Emmanueli and
his Capuchins in 1541. They were expelled five years later by the
heretic Fra Bernadino Occhino, they found refuge in the nearby monastery
of Sant'Angelo, returning in 1548 when the monastery was destroyed and
the heretic expelled.
A new church was commissioned from Palladio by the Republic to
commemorate the end of the 1576 plague (which killed 50,000 people, Titian
among them) the church of the Redentore (Redeemer) was built for ceremony,
on the site of the church of San Jacopo.
Palladio's original design was for a central-plan
church like the Pantheon, but this was rejected as a pagan building.
What was eventually built is reckoned to be Palladio's finest church, it was
completed by Da Ponte following Palladio's death in 1592.The
high and wide staircase and the huge doorway are designed for
processions. And the church is made to be seen from afar -the best view (left) being from the Zattare
opposite.
The Festival of the Redentore, giving thanks for the end of the plague,
continues. Every year on the third Sunday in July a bridge on barges is
built from the Zattere so that Venetians can make the pilgrimage
previously lead by the Doge and the Signoria. The festival is also famous
for the fireworks the night before.
Interior
Fine, but with no great paintings. There are three good paintings by Bassano, Veronese and Alvise Vivarini but these are
mostly in the (rarely
open) sacristy.
A visit
An unusually uncluttered interior, mostly because the church was built on
a site belonging to Capuchin monks, who agreed to take it on providing
their vows of poverty were observed. So, no remunerative funerary masses
and monuments, and one elegantly unembellished interior. High, pale and
airy (due to the many windows) and very Palladian. The wide and aisleless
nave has three connected chapels on each side. Over the chancel there's a
balustraded dome, and there are two side apses so the Doge and Signoria
could sit unobserved by the common herd. There's some middling art (the
Tintorettos are 'school of') and so even a Palma Giovane Deposition
stands out a bit. The leaflet in the church speaks airily of 'The nearby
sacristy' which 'keeps important works by great artists'. But the Chorus
info sheet mentions it not and there seems to be no ready access.
Campanile 48m (136ft) electromechanical bells
Two minaret-like towers
The church in art
Il Redentore by Duncan Grant, 1948.
The Church of the Redentore by Canaletto (below left) from the
Manchester Art Gallery. The demolished church of San Giacomo della
Giudecca is visible to the right.
The Depositing of John Bellini's Three Pictures in the Church of
the Redentore, Venice by J.M.W. Turner shows the three Bellini
paintings arriving in splendid procession in gondolas. This almost
definitely never happened, especially as the paintings in question are now
known to not be Bellini's work (see below).
Ruskin said
It contains three interesting John Bellinis, and also, in the sacristy,
a most beautiful Paul Veronese.
The three 'John Bellinis' were also mentioned in George Eliot's
Journals in 1864 but have since been reattributed to Bissolo and
Alvise Vivarini
Opening times
Monday to Saturday: 10.00 to 5.00
Sundays: closed
A Chorus Church
Vaporetto Redentore
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The church of San Jacopo,
demolished to build the Redentore.
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Photo above by Albert Hickson. |
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San
Gerardo Sagredo
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Named after the Venetian-born bishop who took off
from San Giorgio Maggiore to convert the Hungarians in the 10th Century.
Martyred in Budapest, his remains are supposedly now to be found in Santi
Maria e Donato on Murano. This is a brutally (bunkerly?) modern church built amongst the modern
flats on the Sacca Fisola.
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Photo by Ryan Kasler
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San Giorgio Maggiore
Andrea Palladio/Simeone
Sorella
1565-97
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As an image of the Salute church screams 'Venice!' so too
does a photo of San Giorgio Maggiore taken from in front of the Doge's Palace,
usually with parallel-parked gondolas in the foreground.
History
There's been a church on this island, originally known as the Isola dei
Cipressi, since the 9th Century. Previously there'd been a vineyard, a
cypress grove and a mill. A Benedictine monastery was established
here in 982, with a church erected in 987 by Vitale Candido and the Badoer
family. The body of Saint Stephen was brought here in 1109 from
Constantinople and from then on the Doge and the Signoria visited the
church every year on the saint's day, the 26th December, and this became
one of the most popular festival days in the Venetian calendar, involving
the floating of thousands of candles in the Bacino di San Marco, lasting
until the end of the Republic. In 1204 the body of Saint Lucy was brought
here too, but her feast day celebrations on the December 13th became so
popular that after a storm resulted in the deaths of many people in 1280
her body was moved to the church of Santa Lucia in Cannaregio. The church
and monastery were damaged by an earthquake in 1223 and rebuilt by Doge
Pietro Ziani, who later retreated here.
Palladio's replacement of this gothic church, together with his renovation
and enlarging of the monastery, began in 1565. The church was also
realigned at this time, its façade having originally faced San Marco. Palladio
died in 1580 and Simeone Sorella continued the work for a further 30
years. In 1610 Palladio's facade was finally finished, having been begun
by Sorella in 1597.
The façade
Another temple front, it's a development of Palladio's design for the
façade of
San Francesco della Vigna.
A visit
The interior is a Latin cross - stony and monumental, with white walls
and thick clusters of supporting Corinthian columns and pilasters. On the right as
you enter is an Adoration
of the Shepherds by Jacopo da Bassano, an atmospheric night time scene that benefits greatly
from a .50 euro coin in the light. Opposite it is an odd Martyrdom of
Saint Lucy by Leandro de Bassano (one of Jacopo's four sons, who were
all painters in his studio) which depicts
strong men and oxen trying to move the saint with ropes. I went up the
campanile too - 3 euros and there's a lift - for some stunning views over
Venice, and into the nearby cloisters (below right).
Art highlights
Three late Tintorettos (including a deposition painted in the year of his
death). Also works by the Bassanos, Ricci and Palma Giovane
Lost art
Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, was removed from the refectory of
the monastery by Napoleon and is
shamefully still in
the Louvre. On September 11th 2007, to celebrate the 210th anniversary of
the looting, a computer-generated facsimile was hung where the painting
should be.
The church in art
Monet, Turner, Guardi, Canaletto...
Campanile 63m (206ft) electromechanical bells
The original campanile stood in front of the church, collapsed in 1442
during a storm and was rebuilt. A new tower, behind the church, was built
in
1729 by Scalfarrotto following the collapse of the previous campanile in
1726. This one itself collapsed in 1774, killing one monk and wounding two
others, and was rebuilt in 1791 by Fra Benadetto Buratti. In 1993 the
wooden angel on the top of the campanile was struck by lightning. It now stands
in front of the ticket office for the campanile.
A lift takes you to
the top, giving panoramic views towards San Marco and into the
monastery's cloisters.
Ruskin said
It is impossible to conceive a design more gross, more barbarous, more
childish in conception, more servile in plagiarism, more insipid in
result, more contemptible under every point of rational regard.
Observe, also, that when Palladio had got his pediment at the top of the
church, he did not know what to do with it; he had no idea of decorating
it except by a round hole in the middle ... Palladio had given up colour,
and pierced his pediment with a circular cavity, merely because he had not
wit enough to fill it with sculpture. The interior of the church is like a
large assembly room, and would have been undeserving of a moment's
attention, but that it contains some most precious pictures.
Effie Ruskin said
...to my mind a very corrupt form of architecture and very ugly, half
Greek Temple-ish and half anything else you like, the inside heavy and
unimpressive...
Letter to her mother, 15th December 1849.
The Monastery
Cosimo de' Medici when he was banished from Florence in 1433 took
refuge here. He brought Michelozzo with him who designed and built a
library (demolished in 1614 to make way for Longhena's grander library) to
show Cosimo's gratitude.
There are two cloisters. One Giovanni Buora's Cloister of the
Bay Trees begun in 1517 and completed by Buora's son Andrea in 1540. The
other is Palladio's untypical Cloister of the Cypresses, begun in 1579,
the year before died, but not completed until the mid 17th Century. In
1806 the monks moved to Santa Giustina. In 1808 an airship was built in
the church and in 1929 the complex became a barracks and ammunitions store
In 1951 the
monastery was taken over and restored by art patron Count Vittorio Cini ,
and renamed in memory of his son Giorgio, who was killed in an air crash
in 1949. It now hosts conferences and courses and so is not generally open
to the public, except at weekends when there are guided tours. Some
Benedictine monks remain too.
The Cini Foundation website
The church in film
In memoria di me (In memory of me) an Italian film released in
2007, was filmed in the monastery and the church. And very handsome they
look too, especially at night with atmospheric lighting.
Opening times
Mon-Sat: 9.30-12.30 and 2.30-6.30
Sunday: 2.00-6.30
Vaporetto Isola San Giorgio
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Sant’Eufemia
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Photo above by David Orme
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History
Founded in 865 and initially dedicated to four female saints - Euphemia, Dorothy, Tecla and Erasma, but as time passed the first saint's
name came to dominate. The church became known colloquially as Famia
and was renovated in 952. Reconsecrated in 1371 after rebuilding and
renovated in the second half of the 16th Century and again in the
mid-18th, when it acquired new altars and the stucco decoration to the
interior on the upper walls and ceiling.
The church
The portico along the side (visible in the photo left) is by
Michele Sanmicheli and was donated by Giovanni Stucky in 1883. It dates from 1596 and was actually designed as the choir of
the church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, which was demolished to make way for
the Stucky mill (now a swanky hotel) nearby. The 14th Century
Crucifixion above the main door comes from this demolished church too.Interior
Retains its Veneto-Byzantine form despite later restorations and
decoration, with some columns and capitals dating from the 11th Century.
A visit
A surprising interior which has an old shell below, with old columns,
that contrasts strongly with the flouncy rococo decoration above -
all white, pale green and gilding. This effect is accentuated by the
plaster on the lower part of the walls having been mostly chipped away to
reveal the rough brickwork. The paintings around the chancel are
uninspiring works by some followers of Veronese. The art highlight is
Saint Roch and the Angel by Bartolomeo Vivarini (which was the central panel of a
triptych, the info in the church tells us) with a lunette above of The
Virgin and Child. This sheet of facts also tells us that The Birth
of Christ and The Adoration of the Magi by Marieschi are 'no
longer in place' and that the ceiling panels are by Giambattista Canal, a follower
of Tiepolo. There's also a Morleiter statue of the Pieta, where the
body of Christ rests on a rock rather than in the usual maternal lap. The
Doric portico which faces onto the Giudecca Canal was recently restored,
but still looks very grubby.
Art highlights
Ceiling frescoes by Giambattista Canal. Two pieces of a triptych
(which originally also featured Saint Sebastian and Saint Louis) featuring
Saint Roch with the Virgin and child above, by Bartolomeo Vivarini (below left),
one of his best..
Campanile 10m (33ft) electromechanical bells
The current tower dates from the mid-18th Century, restored in 1883. A drawing by Canaletto of
around 1730 shows it once had a taller one with a sugar-loaf spire. As
does a detail from a map of 1635 (below).
Opening times
Mon-Sat: 8.00-12.00 and 3.00-5.00
Sun 3.00-7.00
Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
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Santa Croce
Maestro Pellegrini
1508-15
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History
The church and convent were founded in the 13th Century. Eufamia
Giustiniani, an abbess here, was made a saint in 1465. She was also the
niece of Lorenzo Giustiniani, the first patriarch of Venice. While she was
abbess only four nuns died in the plague of 1446 and a knight who turned
up at the door and asked for water was later identified as having been St
Sebastian, so the well here was renamed after him and the waters were said
to have miraculous powers.
The church was rebuilt 1508-15, with a façade in the Tuscan style by an architect
going by the name of Maestro Pellegrini.
The church and convent were suppressed in 1806 with the nuns moving to San
Zaccaria and the complex becoming a prison.
Quite
recently restored but still closed, although one guide book says it's
being used by an old people's home. Its proximity to a prison might be a
clue to its current use. It didn't look much cared for or lived in when I waded through the weeds and took
the photo in late 2008.
Lost art
S. Antonio da Padova, S. Eliodoro and S. Filippo Neri by Antonio
Zanchi now in San Pietro Martire on Murano.
Vaporetto Redentore
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Santi
Cosma e Damiano
Mauro Codussi? 1498
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A photo from the late 19th Century showing
the original
windows, including the lunettes down the side.
A photo taken whilst the church was in use
as a textile factory.
That's the upper part of the chancel and two side chapels in the
background
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History
A convent was established here in 1481 by a Benedictine nun called
Marina Celsi, who had been abbess at San Matteo on Murano and of
Sant'Eufamia on Mazzorbo. The first stone was laid in 1491, with work
completed in 1498. Consecrated in 1583, it is said that Mauro Codussi may
have had a hand in the design of the church, he having been working at the time on San
Michele in Isola and San Zaccaria, also for Benedictines.
Upon suppression by Napoleon in 1806 the nuns moved to San Zaccaria.
The church was stripped and became a warehouse, a barracks, and in 1887 a hospice for
cholera victims. Sold in
1897 to the Herion Brothers who converted it into a textile factory (see
interior photo below left), which it remained until the 1970s.
Restored quite recently for use as an enterprise centre offering office
space to small businesses, the convent having been long since converted to
housing.
A fresco in the dome of the chancel of the Virgin with female saints by
Girolamo Pellegrini is supposedly still in place.
Lost art
Giambattista Tiepolo's Punishment of the Serpent now in the
Accademia - the long thin painting in Room 11 that was left rolled up for
60 years (and boy does it look it!) - was originally displayed under the choir
at the back of this church. It was one of a cycle of paintings filling the
church in the 17th and 18th Century and eliciting much contemporary
praise. Charles de Brosses praised many of the paintings and Coronelli in
his 1744 guide said 'Here can be seen very many Paintings all by famous
Artists, and these paintings deserve to be seen'. These included four
paintings by Zanchi and one by Antonio Molinari, long lost. Also three by
Sebastiano Ricci - Solomon Speaking to the People at the Dedication of
the Temple, now in the Duomo in Thiene, Moses striking water from
the Rock at Horeb, now in the Cini Foundation, and The
Transportation of the Holy Ark, now in the Brera. Thematically the
works are all Old Testament concentrations on the threats to the ancient
Hebrews, which chimed nicely with contemporary worries about the upsurge
of threats to the Venetian state.
The church also housed the Tintoretto Madonna in Glory,
also to be found in the Accademia, and a Crucifixion by him. Also
works by Palma Giovane, Marascalco, and Padovanino.
Cloisters
Once used by the military, later as a hostel for the homeless. Currently being used as studio space
by an art foundation.
The church in art
The church appears in Giudecca, a watercolour by John Singer
Sargent, and was sketched by Turner, appearing in his sketchbooks in the
Tate Gallery in London.
Vaporetto Sant’Eufemia
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Le Zitelle
Andrea Palladio/Jacopo
Bozzetto 1581-88
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History
The church of Santa Maria della Presentazione is better known as Le
Zitelle, or The Spinsters, since the convent here ran a hospice (founded
by a group of Venetian noblewomen in 1559) for 'beautiful girls'
from poor families whose beauty was thought to put them in danger of falling into prostitution.
A prevention regime, as opposed the Convertite's concentration on helping
fallen women. So the most attractive poor
young virgins were taken in and were trained in lace and music making. The
church was designed by Palladio around 1576 for a different site and built
by Jacopo Bozzetto from 1581-88.
The church
The Palladian façade is flanked by the wings of the convent. The buildings
extend around the back and the cloister is behind the church. The convent
is now a luxury hotel.
Interior
A small barrel-vaulted vestibule leads to a square nave. Choir
galleries reached from the flanking convent buildings.
Art highlights
Palma Giovane is represented as is Francesco Bassano, one of the four
sons of the better known Jacopo.
The church in art
The Giudecca with the Zitelle (right) by Franceso Guardi, in the National
Gallery in London.
Opening times
For mass only: Sundays 10.00-12.00
Vaporetto Zitelle
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