Demolished Convents
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Location of all demolished convents in Venice (excluding the Lagoon Islands) Demolished Convents in Venice | |
In Venice, each individual island was founded with a church on the landmass. However, over time many of the churches were demolished due to neglect, suppression from the government, lack of support or catastrophic fire. At some of these sites there are clues that indicate that there was a church standing in the area in the past, but most of the evidence has been erased from the original location.
History
Convents in Venice were demolished for various reasons, but almost always they were a part of a nearby church complex. They were mainly removed to make room for modern urban expansion or military related use during the reign of Napoleon. For example, major projects including the public gardens and the Santa Lucia train station required the demolition of multiple religious buildings on the island. While Napoleon held control of Venice from 1797 to 1866, he demolished many of the smaller and less popular churches to use as barracks and military installations. Unfortunately, many of the churches at the time were in strategic positions for the Austrian navy, so they were converted and eventually demolished when the Austrians left.
Statistics
Most of the churches that were erased from Venice's land were demolished in the years between 1800 and 1830 when the Austrian and French governments were in power. This is illustrated clearly by the graph below which displays the percentage of churches demolished by each government in Venice.
Map
Map containing the known locations of demolished churches
<display_map height=600 zoom=14 centre=45.440155,12.345403>
45.429597,12.3582|Sant'Antonio di Castello 45.432178,12.354638|San Domenico 45.435183,12.35795|Santa Maria delle Vergini
</display_map>
See Also
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