Ospedale della Pietà & Chiesa della Pietà
Why is it significant?
Facing the lagoon on the Riva degli Schiavoni, the white church of Santa Maria della Visitazione, known to everyone as the Pietà, looks calm and classical. Walk round to its side, into the Calle della Pietà, and look for a stone plaque dated 1548.
Key Facts
| Place | Ospedale della Pietà & Chiesa della Pietà |
|---|---|
| Address | Riva degli Schiavoni, Castello, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.43400, 12.34490 |
| Part of Walk | Vivaldi, Opera and the Phoenix: A Walk Through Musical Venice |
| Generated | Generated |
Facing the lagoon on the Riva degli Schiavoni, the white church of Santa Maria della Visitazione, known to everyone as the Pietà, looks calm and classical. Walk round to its side, into the Calle della Pietà, and look for a stone plaque dated 1548. It calls down God's curses on any parent who abandons a child here while having the means to raise it.
Because that is what this place was: the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for foundlings. Babies were left at a small opening in the wall, and the institution raised them. The boys learned a trade and left. The girls stayed, and the most talented were trained as musicians, the figlie di coro, the daughters of the choir. Many had no surname, so they were known by their instrument, like the celebrated violinist Anna Maria della Pietà, Anna Maria dal Violin.
In 1703 a young red-haired priest was hired here as master of the violin: Antonio Vivaldi. On and off for most of the next four decades he taught, rehearsed and composed for these young women, and many of his concertos were written to show off a particular player. Concerts drew diplomats, princes and travellers from all over Europe... though the musicians performed behind iron grilles, heard but barely seen.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Venice in the 1740s, was so enchanted by the singers of the city's ospedali that he begged to meet them. When he finally did, he admitted in his Confessions that several were disappointingly plain... and that their music charmed him all the same. These were stars without faces.
One more surprise: Vivaldi never set foot in this church. The building you see was designed by Giorgio Massari and begun in 1745, four years after Vivaldi died, poor and far from home, in Vienna. Its oval interior was planned with music in mind, and on the ceiling Giambattista Tiepolo painted the Coronation of the Virgin. The older church stood next door, where a hotel now stands. Cross the next bridge east and turn left up Calle del Dose to Campo Bandiera e Moro.