San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti

San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti
Basic information
Location	Venice, Italy
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
District	Veneto
Province	Venice
Country	Italy
Year consecrated	1636
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Vincenzo Scamozzi and Giuseppe Sardi
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Baroque
Groundbreaking	1601
Completed	1673

San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti is an ancient church in the sestiere of Castello, Venice, northern Italy, with a facade facing a Rio of the same name. It now serves as the chapel of the Civic Hospital of Venice.

By 1224, a hospital for lepers, dedicated to St Lazarus patron saint of those afflicted with the disease, was found adjacent to the church of San Trovaso in the sestiere of Dorsoduro. In 1262, a Leper Colony was quarantined to an island in the Lagoon, then called Isola di San Lazzaro.

In 1500, funds left over after the construction of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, were allocated to build an adjacent leper Hospital of San Lazaro, Ospedale di San Lazaro e dei Mendicanti. It was one of the four main hospitals (Ospedali Maggiori) in Venice. The term Mendicanti could be derived from two sources: first in 1601, the Mendicant Friars commissioned building of this church from the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Second, the hospital appears to have served as a shelter for beggars (mendicanti), as well as lepers.

The father of Antonio Vivaldi taught violin at the music school here from 1689 to 1693. Like the Ospedale della Pietà, it took in abandoned girls who studied music and were trained to sing and play. The church still has a metal grille behind which the orphan girls (figlie del coro in Italian) sang.

For this church, the composer Simon Mayr wrote the oratorios (based on story of Sisera 1793), Tobiae matrimonium (1794) and David in spelunca Engaddi (1795).

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