Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
Giudecca
Giudecca's disputed history begins with its name. The name comes not from onetime Jew-
ish inhabitants (the Italian word for Jews is
ebrei
), but from the Venetian
zudega
, meaning
'the judged' - referring to rebel aristocratic families banished here during the 9th century.
Giudecca's most illustrious exile, however, was not Venetian but Florentine. Michelan-
gelo fled here from Florence in 1529, though by the time he arrived the aristocratic Dando-
los, Mocenigos and Vendramins had transformed the island from a prison into a neighbour-
hood of garden villas. When the nobles headed inland in the 18th century to build villas
along the Riviera Brenta (
Click here
), the gardens gave way to factories, tenements and
military barracks.
In recent years, these large abandoned spaces attracted a new set of exiles - artists who
could no longer afford rents in central Venice. Today, SS Cosma e Damiano, first a church
and then a factory, has live-work loft spaces, while a munitions depot is now the cutting-
edge Teatro Junghans (
Click here
).
CHIESA DELLE ZITELLE
( 041 260 19 74; Fondamenta delle Zitelle; Zitelle)
Designed by Palladio in the late 16th century,
the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Presentazione, known as the Zitelle, was a church and hos-
pice for orphans and poor young women (
zitelle
is old local slang for 'old maids'). The
doors are rarely open, but you can get a spa treatment in the adjoining convent and sleep in
the orphanage. The Palladio Hotel & Spa (
Click here
) has creatively tweaked the original
structure without altering Palladio's blueprint or the original cloister garden.
CHURCH
CASA DEI TRE OCI
MAP
CULTURAL CENTRE
GOOGLE MAP
( 041 220 12 11;
www.fondazionedivenezia.org
; Fondamente de la Croce 43; 10am-6pm during exhibitions
only; Zitelle)
F
Acquired by the Fondazione di Venezia in 2000, the Casa dei Tre Oci was
once the home of early-20th-century artist and photographer Mario de Maria, who con-
ceived of its distinctive, neo-Gothic brick facade with its three arched windows (its name-
