The Church of Santa Maria delle Penitenti in Venice was built in 1706 for the piety of the priest of the Oratory Rinaldo Bellini, and for the liberality of Marina da Leze, the patriarch Giovanni Badoaro and the priest Paolo Contarini, to help women go astray, and then repent.
The institutional purpose of the church complex and the Hospice of Santa Maria delle Penitenti connected to it, was to hospitalize prostitutes who had repented and other women who had given public scandal and needed to be helped, employing them in honest work.
In about 1725, the construction of the pious site began in its present form, based on the project that was prepared by Giorgio Massari, who also directed its construction. The reference model was that of the church of the Zitelle alla Giudecca: the church in the center between the two wings of the hospice, whose buildings extend along the foundations and inside around the cloisters (of which only one was completed).
The church was opened to the public in 1744 even if its actual consecration, by the hand of Lorenzo da Ponte, took place only almost twenty years later, in 1763 when it was now clear that the state of the building, with the facade remained incomplete due to of the lack of financial means, it could now be said to be definitive.
The painter Jacopo Marieschi was called to decorate the building who painted the Madonna and San Lorenzo Giustiniani in glory and the Holy Trinity (1743), once placed on the ceiling and now preserved in Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, and the main altarpiece with the Madonna and Child with Saints Lorenzo Giustiniani, Margherita da Cortona, Maria Maddalena, Domenico and Rosa da Lima (1744)
Restoration completed in 2018 and now the Church Complex is also an events room for collatrals of the Venice Biennale and also hosts Art Exhibitions.
Church of Santa Maria delle Penitenti
Address: Fondamenta Cannaregio, 910, 30121
Phone: 041 309 6605
Site:
https://www.gioiellinascostidivenezia.itLocation inserted by
Art in the World