San Giorgio Maggiore Historical Timeline

Origins

A Benedictine monastery has stood on this island since 982, when the nobleman Giovanni Morosini asked the Doge, Tribuno Memmo, to grant him the entire island to found a religious community. Morosini drained the marshy ground himself and became the monastery's first abbot.

Turning points

The monastery's church was rebuilt several times over the centuries before the Benedictines commissioned Andrea Palladio to design an entirely new building, begun in 1566. Palladio died in 1580 before construction finished, and the church was completed to his design by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi.

Influential people

Palladio's design became one of the most influential church facades in Western architecture, its classical white stone front visible across the water from St. Mark's Square. Inside, the painter Tintoretto contributed two of his last major works, including a version of The Last Supper completed between 1592 and 1594, near the very end of his career.

Cultural evolution

Napoleon's suppression of Venice's monasteries in 1806 emptied the complex of its Benedictine community, and the island passed through military and civic use for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its view across the basin has drawn painters for generations -- Claude Monet painted the island repeatedly during a stay in Venice in 1908.

Present-day significance

Since 1951, the monastery buildings have housed the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a cultural foundation with a major library and archive, which hosts exhibitions, concerts, and academic conferences on the island today. The church itself remains active and open to visitors alongside the foundation's own programming.