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Santa Maria delle Penitenti
Former refuge for fallen women
In 1700, Patriarch Giovanni Badoer founded the Penitenti of San Giobbe as a lay institute to redeem and re-educate the city's countless Prostitutes and Courtesans and other 'fallen women'.
Designed by Giorgio Massari in the early 1700s with Palladio's Le Zitelle as his model, this church with an unfinished façade is part of a large complex or ospizio with gardens, two cloisters and housing on either side. It was consecrated in 1763 and survived the fall of the Republic, and eventually became an home for the elderly, until it was closed in 1995.
A major restoration was completed in 2013 costing €12 million, to offer public services and hospice accommodation for the elderly. But don't count on them ever finishing the façade.
Hours Tours by reservation only; book at booking@fondazioneveneziaservizi.it
+39 041 3096605
Fondamenta de le Penitenti
vaporetto Tre Archi
Image by Didier Descouens, Creative Commons License