The outbreak of plague in Venice in 1575- 1577 was a terrible pandemic that claimed thousands of victims despite the modern pre- cautions adopted by the Venetian Republic. In the wake of the deep crisis that followed, on 4 September 1576 the Serenissima decided to focus its hopes for rebirth and the common good on the construction of a new church dedicated to the Most Holy Redeemer. Of the potential sites considered, the one on Giudecca was chosen.
It was here that Capuchin friars had been living since the 1530s and had built a small church and convent: the Hermitage of Saint Mary of the Angels, commissioned by the Friars Minor of San Francesco della Vigna.
1577
Designing the church and overseeing its construction were entrusted to Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential individuals in the history of architecture. After the architect’s death in 1580, construction was completed by the building workers in agreement with the Capuchin friars.
10 January 1578
Pope Gregory XIII allowed the Capuchins to officiate, quae quidem satis ampla et magnifica constructa fuit [which was in fact quite a large and magnificent building].
27 September 1592
The church was consecrated and entrusted to the Capuchins.
1696
A map of Venice by Giovanni Merlo documents the Convent Garden of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer which, similarly to the other Capuchin gardens, featured a regular cross-shaped layout with pergolas defining the spaces for its various crops: the flower garden, which supplied flowers to decorate the church altars; the kitchen garden, instrumental for the friars’ sustenance and for making the soup offered to the poor who came to the convent’s door; the garden of simples, reserved for medicinal herbs that were carefully studied to provide cures for the sick.
Bordering the Horto grande to the south, are the Old Workshops, service buildings that were instrumental for running the convent: a carpentry shop, a blacksmith’s forge, a wool mill where habits were sewn, and the places designated for preparing mistrà, a liqueur mixed with water that was offered on the Day of the Redeemer. Adjacent to these workshops are the two chapels where the friars retreated to devote themselves to meditation and fraternal rest. Their entrances are decorated with two reliefs depicting religious scenes: the one to the east shows Saint Jerome and the one to the west Saint Francis of Assisi in La Verna.
Between the Old Workshops and the lagoon are two small gardens, one planted with pittosporums, one with olive trees, the result of transformation in the wake of land reclamation efforts carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century, as shown in an aerial photograph taken from an airship during the First World War.
19 May 2021
The Complex was entrusted to Venice Gardens Foundation by the Provincial Curia of the Friars Minor Capuchin, with authorisation granted by the Holy See (Congregatio pro Institutis Vitae Consecratae et Societatibus Vitae Apostolicae) and by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the City of Venice and its Lagoon.
26 October 2024
The Convent Garden of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer opened to the public for the first time in history.