La Maddalena (Italian: ''Santa Maria Maddalena in Cannaregio'', usually referred to simply as ''La Maddalena'') is a church in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, in the ''

sestiere A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

'' of

Cannaregio Cannaregio () is the northernmost of the six historic ''sestieri of Venice''. It is the second largest ''sestiere'' by land area and the largest by population, with 13,169 people . Isola di San Michele, the historic cemetery island, is associate ...

. A religious edifice is known in the site as early as 1222, owned by the Balbo patrician family. When, in the mid-14th century, the Venetian Senate established a public holiday for

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

's feast, it was decided to enlarge the church, including a watchtower which was turned into a bell tower. The church was restored in the early 18th century, but in 1780 it was entirely rebuilt under design by Tommaso Temanza, with a circular plan inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The bell tower was demolished in 1888. The most notable feature is the portal, with

masonic symbols Masonic ritual is the scripted words and actions that are spoken or performed during the degree work in a Masonic lodge. Masonic symbolism is that which is used to illustrate the principles which Freemasonry espouses. Masonic ritual has appeared ...

over the door (probably connected to the Balbo's membership in the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

). The interior has an hexagonal plan with four side chapels and a presbytery. Outside the apse is a 15th-century basrelief of the ''Madonna with Child''.

References

External links

The Churches of Venice website
{{Authority control Roman Catholic churches completed in 1780 Maddalena Maddalena Maddalena Churches completed in 1580 Roman Catholic churches completed in the 1580s Centralized-plan churches in Italy Tommaso Temanza buildings Neoclassical church buildings in Italy