At the time when Venice was a wealthy and powerful maritime nation that ruled the Eastern Mediterranean, it needed a practical and economic solution to the ever-present problems of caring for its many sick, homeless, orphaned and destitute. In the first half of the second millenium came the need for institutions that would take responsibility for such care, and hence were founded the four Ospedali Grandi. Although these appear to be, and were, great philanthropic institutions, exhibiting pure altruism by their benefactors, they did remove the sick, frail and destitute from the streets of Venice.
The word ‘Ospedale‘ evokes the idea that these were hospitals, but their brief went much further. They were charitable institutions, not only providing some form of medical care, but also hospices for the terminally ill, and homes for orphans and for people with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Their brief was to extend further during the 17th and 18th centuries becoming at the same time hospitals, hospices, orphanages – and conservatories.
Now, bearing in mind that little has changed in Venice in the last five hundred years, it is no surprise that the buildings housing the four Ospedali Grandi are still standing.
1. The Ospedale di Santa Maria dei Derelitti
The construction of the Baroque, Istrian Marble-fronted church shown here, built in 1575, resulted in the completion of a complex of buildings known as the Ospedale di Santa Maria dei Derelitti. This complex, founded 50 years earlier in 1528 by Girolamo Miani and commissioned by private citizens and rich benefactors, started life as a group of makeshift shelters to support those who had suffered from the deadly famine that struck the Veneto region during the winter of 1527-28. In the mid- to late-16th century, continuing contributions from rich Venetian benefactors allowed these temporary structures gradually to give way to permanent stone constructions and by 1575 the Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti (also known as the Chiesa dell’Ospedaletto) was added to the complex.
Originally designed to accommodate 50 orphaned boys and 125 girls, the Ospedaletto‘s intake grew to around 600 by about 1570. Both boys and girls were taken in by all four Ospedali Grandi with boys undertaking training for a trade, such as stonemasonry and sail making. Boys were then sent out into the world at 16 to practise their trade, whereas girls, on the other hand, had two options. They could also undertake some form of trade, such as seamstresses, cooks, or lace-makers, and then leave via marriage or by becoming nuns – or young girls with the appropriate aptitude were given choral and orchestral tuition from musically accomplished priests and nuns from within the institution.
The Ospedaletto became renowned both in Venice and throughout Europe for its choir and orchestra of young girls (figlie del coro) who, initially, provided the musical accompaniment for ecclesiastical services. At the time, liturgical singing by women was only accepted within the nunnery, but in the Ospedaletto, there is evidence of liturgical singing by these non-convent female singers as early as around 1540. As their fame grew, eminent musicians and musical teachers were attracted to the ospedali and employed to lead the chorus, to teach the girls to professional levels of musicianship and to write musical works for them to sing. Such was the musical prowess of the all-female musical ensembles of the ospedali, that members of the figlie del coro were often allowed to remain as musicians or musical tutors within the ospedali indefinitely, while some left to become national and international musicians within their own right.
Eventually the ospedali girls’ choruses presented general concerts for visiting dignitaries and gave public concerts, drawing audiences from far-and-wide. In the following painting, the girls’ orchestra and chorus is placed high in raised galleries (on the left) above the audience/dancers – out of direct sightline, as was typical at that time.
For the ospedali, yes, they provided a home for these otherwise destitute girls but, in return, the girls’ concerts provided these charitable institutions with much-needed income.
By the 18th century, a bespoke music room was incorporated into the Ospedaletto to further enhance the musical training. Such enhancements in the choral and orchestral environment provided by the Venetian ospedali are considered the forerunners to the conservatories of the 19th century.
With the decline of Venice as a powerful maritime nation and with Venice’s financial downturn, the Ospedaletto fell into bankruptcy and finally closed its doors to the homeless, derelict, poor, sick and abandoned orphans in 1791.
Amongst other things, more recently the Ospedaletto has provided care for elderly patients within the Venetian community as a nursing home and a hospital and, since 2016, the church itself has been used for concerts.
2. Ospedale di San Lazzaro e dei Mendicanti
The church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, completed in 1631, shown above with its Palladian temple façade, started life as the Chapel of the Ospizio dei Mendicanti (“Guest House of the Beggars”) and sits between two wings of the Ospedale di San Lazzaro.
But the history of the Ospedale di San Lazzaro itself goes back much further than 1631.
Historically, this was the oldest and longest running of the four Ospedali Grandi, with its origins dating back to 1182 when this Ospedale was founded as a leper colony on the Venetian Island of Saint Lazarus (the patron saint of lepers). In the second half of the 13th century, it wasn’t only those with leprosy who were isolated on the Isola di San Lazzaro, but also, with the Black Death sweeping across Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353, the island became home to those suffering from the Bubonic Plague.
By the early 16th century, however, with both these diseases having waned, the island was completely abandoned and the Ospedale was transferred here to the Castello district of Venice, becoming a hospice to help beggars (hence the addition of the “dei Mendicanti” in its name – mendicants being beggars).
Web Gallery of Art, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15462090
In 1500, the funds remaining from the construction of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the church shown in Canaletto’s painting of 1741 (below), were donated towards the construction of the Scuola Grande di San Marco (below left, with its classic renaissance and Byzantine façade).
(Scuola – left, Basilica – centre)
In 1601, with generous financial contributions from the merchants Bartolomeo Bontempelli del Calice and Gian Domenico Biava, the Ospedale di San Lazzaro e dei Mendicanti was constructed adjacent to, and behind, the Scuola Grande di San Marco along the length of the Rio dei Mendicanti.
At its height, the Ospedale could accommodate up to about four hundred adults and one hundred children and, as with the other ospedali, a religious-based community required musicians to accompany religious services. Training in music was once again given to the young, orphaned girls to provide the orchestra and chorus. The first mass celebrated by the coro was in 1602 and the earliest external musician hired as a tutor was in 1612. A music school was set up formally during the mid-17th century, and between 1689 and 1693 it even boasted employing the father of Antonio Vivaldi as a violin teacher.
But as Venice’s power and wealth declined at the end of the 18th century, the Ospedali di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, like the Ospedaletto, also fell into bankruptcy, finally closing its doors as a charitable institution in 1795.
By 1797, the Republic of Venice had fallen to Napoleon’s push across Europe. At this time, the Napoleonic authorities removed the Dominican monks from their adjacent monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paoli and in 1808 turned the whole complex, including the Scuola Grande di San Marco, the adjoining buildings of the Ospedale di San Lazzaro e dei Mendicanti and the Dominican monastery, into a hospital.
Nowadays, the whole complex is Venice’s main public hospital – the San Giovanni e Paolo Ospedale Civile – also housing on its first floor the Museum and Library of the History of Medicine.
Now bear in mind that from about 1500, the once maritime powerhouse that had been Venice, had begun a slow political and economic decline. From this time, it began its ascendency as the ‘Pleasure Centre’ of Europe. Venice’s almost year-long hedonistic Carnivale di Venezia encouraged licence and pleasure where anonymity could be guaranteed behind the carnival masks – effectively promoting debauchery and licentiousness.
Courtesy pixabay
Certainly, by the 17th century, attracted by gambling, bacchanalian revelries, and courtesans, Venice became a magnet for those on the ‘Grand Tour‘ – that rite of passage in which the young, landed gentry of European nations, especially Britain, “completed their education”.
The gambling brought about the ruination of many; the bacchanalian revelries encouraged alcoholism and ruination; the prostitution resulted in unwanted children (potential orphans for the ospedali) and sexually transmitted diseases – and this is where the Ospedali di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti played its extra part, not only taking in mendicants, orphans, homeless and war wounded, but also European Nobility who had fallen on hard times!
3. Ospedale degli Incurabili
Founded in 1522 and located on the waterfront of the Fondamenta delle Zattere in the Dorsoduro district of Venice, lies the Ospedale degli Incurabili, set up to take in those suffering from syphilis, the first cases of which had appeared in Venice around 1496 – a new disease thought of as incurable (hence Incurabili).
Originally timber-built, the Ospedale soon became a more permanent brick and stone structure built around a large porticoed courtyard (as can be seen in the Google Maps photograph below).
The oval that can be seen marked out in Istrian marble within the courtyard (above) shows the outline where once stood the Ospedale‘s low-rise church, built in the 1560s. As opposed to Venice’s other ospedali, the Incurabili placed its church within the complex (to keep the ‘incurables’ within its bounds?) rather than placing it face-out as part of the façade of the institution. The church, low-rise so as not to block too much light from the Ospedali‘s encompassing buildings, was demolished in 1831.
As charitable institutions, it was no surprise that each ospedale had its own church that was run by religious orders. And while the state may have been more interested in clearing the streets of, and caring for, diseased souls, the ecclesiastical side of the provision was more concerned with their salvation!
Although originally set up for incurabili, by the second half of the 16th century, the Ospedale was, like the others, admitting orphaned boys and girls. As a religious-based institution, the Ospedale required a chorus and orchestra to accompany its religious services and, once again, this was delivered in the late 17th-18th century by an all-female ensemble who, as their fame grew, also presented internationally renowned concerts to help financially support their Ospedale.
Young girls were closely ‘protected’ within the confines of the Ospedale, whereas boys were given more leeway and on Feast Days could be seen in procession outside the institution.
Note the procession of orphans on the quayside.
Like the other ospedali, in the late 18th century the Incurabili hit financial problems and from 1782 passed into the care of the state. Post-Napoleon it changed its role several times passing from civil hospital (1807) to military barracks (1819) to juvenile re-education centre (1938). By 1997 it had become the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, an outpost of the Gallerie dell’Accademia.
4. Ospedale della Pietà
As early as 1335, there was a need for an institution in Venice to home the increasing numbers of abandoned children due to poverty or illegitimacy. The Ospedale della Pietà was founded as an orphanage and home for foundlings from the initiative of a Franciscan, fra Petruccio d’Assisi, and backed by the Senate of the Republic of Venice. However, the Pietà was still dependent on charitable donations, despite part-support from the Venetian Republic’s funding using criminal fines, taxes, etc and by bequests from generous benefactors. However, to ensure enhanced financial support, fra Petruccio d’Assisi would beg for alms on the streets of Venice on behalf of the Ospedale calling out, “Pietà! Pietà!” (Mercy! Mercy!), so giving the Ospedali its name.
Today, the Pietà still stands, but in the guise of the Metropole Hotel wherein can still be found certain artefacts that relate back to the time when the building housed the Ospedale della Pietà.
45° 26′ 2″ N, 12° 20′ 43″ E
Unlike the other three Ospedali Grandi, the Pietà was not a shelter for the sick or homeless, but was reserved solely for abandoned, illegitimate and orphaned children.
On the wall nearby can be found the “baby hatch”, donation box and plaque from 1548, through which babies would be placed anonymously to be adopted by the Pietà. The size of this orifice was such that only small babies could be left …
Such was the need to ensure a secure upbringing for their children that some parents, who otherwise could afford to raise their children, left them with the Pietà. The authorities, aware of this malpractice, placed the following plaque on the wall beneath the baby hatch, still there today. It reads:
FULMINA IL SIGNOR IDDIO MALEDITIONI E SCOMUNICHE
CONTRO QUELLI QUALI MANDANO O PERMETTANO
SIANO MANDATI I LORO FIGLIOLI E FIGLIOLE SI
LEGITTIMI COME NATURALI IN QUESTO HOSPEDALE DELLA
PIETA’ AVENDO IL MODO E FACULTA DI POTERLI ALLEVARE
ESSENDO OBLIGATI AL RISARCIMENTO DI OGNI DANNO E
SPESA FATTA PER QUELLI NE POSSONO ESSERE ASSOLTI
SE NON SODDISFANO COME CHIARAMENTE APPARE NELLA
BOLLA DI NOSTRO SIGNOR PAPA PAOLO TERZO
DATA ADL 12 NOVENBRE L’ANNO 1548
… which roughly translates as …
GOD CURSES AND EXCOMMUNICATES THOSE WHO ABANDON THEIR LEGITIMATE CHILDREN HERE TO THIS OSPEDALE HAVING THE WHEREWITHAL AND FACULTY TO BE ABLE TO RAISE THEM. THEY CANNOT BE ABSOLVED UNLESS THEY COMPENSATE FOR ANY DAMAGE AND EXPENSE MADE.
AS OF THE PAPAL BULL OF POPE PAUL III, 12 NOVEMBER 1548
… effectively promising ‘hell and damnation’ on those who abused the system!
On the wall of the Metropole Hotel, a short distance down the Calle de la Pietà (alleyway to the left of the Hotel) is the Scafetta which at the beginning of the 19th century replaced the baby hatch …
This consists of a cylindrical wooden drum that rotates about a vertical axis. On one side is an opening with a shelf. It was on this shelf that destitute mothers could bring their infants to be taken in by the Ospedale. Once the child was placed in the recess, the drum was rotated so that the child could be taken from the shelf from the inside, maintaining the anonymity of the mother. A larger opening than the former-used baby hatch meant that older babies and children could then be left.
In the hopes that one day, in better times, the mother and child could be reunited, also left in the Scafetta would be some unique object. Often these would be paintings or drawings cut in two; half of which would be left with the child and the other, identifying, half retained by the mother as proof of ‘belonging’.
As with the other ospedali, the Pietà provided musical tuition to the girls who subsequently provided the institution with a chorus and orchestra for liturgical services and public concerts. Between 1704 and 1740, the figlie del coro were fortunate to have Antonio Vivaldi as their musical tutor. Many of Vivaldi’s works that we enjoy today were written specifically for the Ospedale della Pietà.
The four Ospedali Grandi were always living a tenuous financial existence. The costs for their upkeep were immense, especially with only limited financial support from the Republic. Much of their income was provided by patrons, patricians and wealthy merchants but, even so, resort had to be made to begging expeditions by orphans through the city. Even lotteries were used, the first raising money for the Mendicanti in 1606. Contracts were obtained from various institutions in Venice such as the Arsenale, to employ and pay those in the ospedali for sewing sails. The figlie di coro, as well as raising funds from their concerts, could also raise money by giving private music lessons. In many cases, money earned by the children was shared with them to provide a ‘dowry’ for when they eventually left the ospedali.
Despite their best efforts though. and with Venice’s economic decline, by the end of the 18th century all ospedali had become bankrupt and closed.
Ciao Tutti!
Italian Reflections 