Location

 Complesso dell'Ospedaletto

 

The Derelitti complex, known as Ospedaletto, was built on the area originally occupied by a hastily built shelter that offered assistance to those suffering the consequences of the deadly famine that struck the Veneto countryside in the winter of 1527–1528. The Ospedale dei Derelitti soon gave itself a more stable seat that, besides assisting the sick, could also help the poor, the disabled, the pilgrims, and especially the orphans, in keeping with the mixed-welfare policy the Republic of Venice adopted throughout the centuries. Solid stone buildings gradually replaced the early wooden shacks and the works for the erection of the church – a project that saw the contribution of Andrea Palladio – began in 1575.

 

Church

 

From that time up to the early twenty-first century, donations from generous benefactors provided the Ospedale dei Derelitti with funds for its many additions and modifications, furnishing the church with lavish decorations, altars, statues, paintings, and frescoes by famous artists such as Gian Battista Tiepolo, Johann Carl Loth, Pietro Liberi, Antonio Molinari, Andrea Celesti, sculptor Tommaso Ruer, and painter Giuseppe Cherubini who in 1905 decorated the church ceiling with a style blending eighteenth-century tradition and belle-époque taste.