Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Virgin
on the ceiling - it's recently been restored with American funds, and is positively
glowing.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
SACRED MUSIC AT SALUTE
If you think Longhena's dome looks magnificent, wait until you hear how it sounds. Weekdays at 3.30pm, ves-
pers are played on the basilica's original 1782-83 organ. These musical interludes are free, and the acoustics are
suitably heavenly.
SCUOLA GRANDE DEI CARMINI
MAP
HISTORICAL BUILDING
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 528 94 20;
www.scuolagrandecarmini.it
; Campo Santa Margherita 2617; adult/reduced €5/4; 11am-4pm;
Ca' Rezzonico)
Eighteenth-century backpackers must have thought they'd died and gone
to heaven at Scuola Grande dei Carmini, with its lavish interiors by Giambattista Tiepolo
and Baldassare Longhena. Longhena designed the gold-leafed stucco
stairway to heaven
,
glimpsed upstairs in Tiepolo's
nine-panel ceiling
of a rosy
Virgin in Glory
. The adjoining
hostel room is bedecked in
boiserie
(wood carving).
This
scuola
was the first formed by women in the 13th century. It was also Venice's
first known order of Battuti (Flagellants), who practiced self-mortification with a wooden
rod - a practice since discredited. The Carmini continued to extend hospitality to destitute
and wayward travellers from the 13th century right through to the time of Napoleon's oc-
cupation of Venice. Sadly, cots are no longer available in this jewel-box building, but
evening concerts are held here (
Click here
), and members of the Carmini continue to or-
ganise charitable works to this day.
MAGAZZINI DEL SALE
MAP
ART GALLERY
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 522 66 26;
www.fondazionevedova.org
;
Zattere 266; donation suggested during shows; during shows
10.30am-6pm Wed-Mon; Zattere)
A recent retrofit designed by Pritzker Prize-winning archi-
tect Renzo Piano transformed Venice's historic
salt warehouses
into
Fondazione Vedova
art gal-
leries, commemorating pioneering Venetian abstract painter Emilio Vedova. Fondazione
Vedova shows are often literally moving and rotating: powered by renewable energy
sources, 10 robotic arms designed by Vedova and Piano move major modern artworks in
and out of storage slots.
