Santa Maria degli Angeli is a church in

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was o ...

, an island in the

Venetian Lagoon The Venetian Lagoon (; ) is an enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea, in northern Italy, in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Italian and Venetian languages, ' (cognate of Latin ' ), has provided the English name for an enclosed, ...

, northern

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 ...

History

The church's origins date to 1188 when Ginevra Gradenigo, a noblewoman forced to become a nun by her father, donated to abbess Giacomina Boncio a land to build there a monastery. Demolished, rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1529, the church was then united to the monastery of Santa Maria di Piave in Lovadina, in the

province of Treviso The province of Treviso () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso. The province is surrounded by Province of Belluno, Belluno in the north, Province of Vicenza, Vicenza in the west, Pro ...

, which enriched the building.

Henry III of France Henry III (; ; ; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575. As the fourth son of King Henry II of France, he ...

visited it in 1574. The monastery housed nuns from the most prestigious noble families of Venice. The convent was suppressed in 1810 and the church was closed in 1848, and deprived of most of its treasures. Restored in 1861, it was reopened two years later. Currently Santa Maria degli Angeli is not one of the parish churches of Murano.

Description

The church is accessed from an entrance with a bas-relief in Istrian marble, depicting the "Annunciation". The interior is home to artworks by

Francesco Zugno Francesco Zugno ( c. 1708–1787) was an Italians, Italian painter of the Rococo period who had a successful career in Venice. Life Francesco Zugno was born in Venice in 1709 and probably died there in 1787. The Zugno were an ancient Venetian f ...

, Antonio Molinari,

Palma il Giovane Iacopo Negretti (1548/50 – 14 October 1628), best known as Jacopo or Giacomo Palma il Giovane or simply Palma Giovane ('Young Palma'), was an Italian painter from Venice and a notable exponent of the Venetian school. After Tintoretto's death ...

(''The Virgin in Glory and Saints'') and

Il Pordenone Pordenone, Il Pordenone in Italian, is the byname of Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis ( – 14 January 1539), an Italian Mannerist painter, loosely of the Venetian school. Vasari, his main biographer, wrongly identifies him as Giovanni Anton ...

, who painted the ''Annunciation'' (c. 1537) at the high altar; there also the funerary monuments of the doge

Sebastiano Venier Sebastiano Venier (or Veniero) (c. 1496 – 3 March 1578) was Doge of Venice from 11 June 1577 to 3 March 1578. He is best remembered in his role as the Venetian admiral at the Battle of Lepanto. Biography Venier was born in Venice around 1496. ...

, of Lorenzo Contarini and Jacopo Soranzo.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria degli Angeli Murano Roman Catholic churches completed in 1529 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Venice Renaissance architecture in Venice Murano