The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista features a massive white marble screen that blocks the entrance to its courtyard, carved with intricate geometric patterns. This building served as the meeting place for one of Venice’s oldest…
Venice Scuole Grandi Walk
On this walk, we trace the historic lay confraternities and craft guilds of San Polo and Dorsoduro, visiting their magnificent, art-filled headquarters and monumental halls.
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1. San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice
2. Scuola Grande di San Rocco
The Scuola Grande di San Rocco displays a white, Istrian stone facade covered in rhythmic, projecting columns and arched windows. This building functioned as a charitable confraternity, a lay organization that supported Venetians during…
3. Scoletta dei Calegheri
The Scoletta dei Calegheri features a marble relief above its doorway showing Saint Mark healing the cobbler Anianus. This building served as the headquarters for the Venetian shoemakers guild, or scuola, founded in the late thirteenth…
4. Scuola dei Varoteri
The Scuola dei Varoteri sits tucked against the church of Santa Maria del Carmelo, distinguished by a wide, shallow marble relief of the Madonna protecting members of the guild beneath her mantle. This building housed the Confraternity of…
5. Scuola Grande dei Carmini
The Scuola Grande dei Carmini features a facade of white Istrian stone decorated with the sculptural relief of the Virgin Mary appearing to Saint Simon Stock. This building served as a charitable headquarters for a lay confraternity known…
6. Gallerie dell'Accademia
The Gallerie dell'Accademia occupies a complex of three religious buildings, most notably the former church of Santa Maria della Carità. Its entrance features a distinct, austere facade that hides the vast collection of Venetian painting…