San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti is an ancient church in the
sestiere of
Castello,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, northern
Italy, with a facade facing a Rio of the same name. It now serves as the
chapel of the
Civic Hospital of Venice.
History
By 1224, a hospital for
lepers, dedicated to
St Lazarus, patron saint of those afflicted with the disease, was found adjacent to the church of
San Trovaso
San Trovaso (dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius) is a church in the sestiere or neighborhood of Dorsoduro in Venice, northern Italy.
The church dates to at least the 1028. The present church was rebuilt by 1584. The architect was probab ...
in the sestiere of
Dorsoduro
Dorsoduro is one of the six sestieri of Venice, in northern Italy.
Dorsoduro includes the highest land areas of the city and also Giudecca island and Isola Sacca Fisola. Its name derives from the Italian for "hard ridge", due to its comparati ...
. In 1262, a
Leper Colony
A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...
was quarantined to an island in the Lagoon, then called Isola di San Lazzaro.
In 1500, funds left over after the construction of the Basilica of
Santi Giovanni e Paolo, were allocated to build an adjacent leper Hospital of
San Lazaro, ''Ospedale di San Lazaro e dei Mendicanti''. It was one of the four main hospitals (
Ospedali Grandi) in Venice. The term ''Mendicanti'' could be derived from two sources: first in 1601, the
Mendicant Friars commissioned building of this church from the architect
Vincenzo Scamozzi. Second, the hospital appears to have served as a shelter for beggars (mendicanti), as well as lepers.
The father of
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
taught violin at the music school here from 1689 to 1693. Like the
Ospedale della Pietà
The Ospedale della Pietà was a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice. Like other Venetian ''ospedali'', the Pietà was first established as a hospice for the needy. A group of Venetian nuns, called the Consorelle di Santa Maria dell’Um ...
, it took in abandoned girls who studied music and were trained to sing and play. The church still has a metal grille behind which the orphan girls (''figlie del coro'' in Italian) sang.
For this church, the composer
Simon Mayr wrote the oratorios ''
Sisara'' (based on story of
Sisera 1793), ''
Tobiae matrimonium'' (1794) and ''
David in spelunca Engaddi'' (1795).
Description
Completed by 1631, the nave has no flanking aisles, but does have choir galleries. Scamozzi also designed the cloister of the adjacent hospital. The canal-facing facade, designed by Antonio Sardi, was not completed until 1673 by his son
Giuseppe. The south side of the bell-tower has a sundial.
In the interior, the right wall, is a ''Crucifixion'' and ''Virgin and St John'' by
Veronese
Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to:
* Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages
* ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae
* Monte Veronese, an Italian chees ...
, and in the second altar is a ''
Saint Ursula and the 11 thousand Virgins'' by
Tintoretto. The church contains the ornate funeral monument, completed by
Sardi
The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) is the principal research institute of the Government of South Australia, with a network of research centres, laboratories and field sites both in metropolitan Adelaide and through ...
,
and dedicated to the condottiero
Tommaso Alvise Mocenigo, represented as the admiral who died defending the then-Venetian Candia (
Crete) from the Ottomans in 1654, during the
Cretan War (1645–1669). Other funeral monuments were designed by
Baldassare Longhena
Baldassare Longhena (1598 – 18 February 1682) was an Italian architect, who worked mainly in Venice, where he was one of the greatest exponents of Baroque architecture of the period.
Biography
Born in Venice, Longhena studied under the architec ...
. The church also has a funeral monument for a member of the
Rezzonico family. The interior decoration (1634–37) was designed by Francesco Contin.
Sources
*Derived from Italian Wikipedia entry.
Churches of Venice Website
h1>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazzaro dei Mendicanti
Roman Catholic churches in Venice
17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy
Baroque architecture in Venice
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1631
1224 establishments in Europe
1631 establishments in Italy
13th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice