SCUOLA GRANDE DI SAN MARCO
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Scuola transformed into a hospital housing the Museum of Medicine, exhibiting surgical instruments and a chapel.
The Ospedale Civile di Venezia was once one of the six great Venetian scuole . The school was transformed into a hospital during the Austrian administration in 1815. Built by Pietro Lombardo and Giovanni Buora between 1487 and 1490, it was completed by Mauro Codussi. Its marble facade is one of the most beautiful of the Venetian Renaissance, decorated with the four trompe-l'oeil compositions of Lombardo. It is asymmetrical in shape and is a counterpart to the second facade, which overlooks the canal and is the work of Sansovino.
On the second floor of the huge hospital chapel (note the splendid gilded ceiling), there is an interesting museum of medicine, in line with the museums of the same kind opened in the 19th century. Surgical instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries are displayed in long glass cases (sensitive souls should not be disturbed), as well as scientific plates from the period. The visit continues with the library, where nearly 8,000 medical books are kept, some of them dating back to the 14th century. In the past, this scuola housed paintings by the great Venetian masters; the works that escaped Napoleon's looting are now kept between Venice and Milan. From the entrance on the Fondamenta dei Mendicanti, you can enter the Renaissance cloisters and, once in the chapel of the church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti, which adjoins the hospital, you can still appreciate two works by Tintoretto and Veronese.
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