San Giorgio Maggiore - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

San Giorgio Maggiore is one of the island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, lying east of the Giudecca

Giudecca

Giudecca is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It is part of the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It is a locality of the comune of Venice.-Geography:...

and south of the main island group. The isle is surrounded by Canale della Grazia
Santa Maria della Grazia
Santa Maria della Grazia or La Grazia is an artificial island of the Venetian lagoon, northern Italy, which lies between the Giudecca and San Clemente. It rose during the Middle Ages in the place where Venice’s rubble was discarded up...

, Canale della Giudecca, Saint Mark Basin, Canale di San Marco and the southern lagoon

Venetian Lagoon

The Venetian Lagoon is the enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Venetian language, Laguna Veneta— cognate of Latin lacus, "lake"— has provided the international name for an enclosed, shallow embayment of saltwater, a lagoon.The Venetian Lagoon...

. It forms part of the San Marco sestiere.

The island was probably occupied in the Roman period; after the foundation of Venice it was called Insula Memmia after the Memmo family who owned it. By 829 it had a church consecrated to St George; thus it was designated as San Giorgio Maggiore to be distinguished from San Giorgio in Alga

San Giorgio in Alga

San Giorgio in Alga is an island of the Venetian lagoon, northern Italy, laying between the Giudecca and Fusina .-History:...

.

The Monastery

San Giorgio Monastery

The San Giorgio Monastery was a Benedictine monastery in Venice, Italy, located on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. It stands next to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, which formerly served the monastic community, and currently serves as the headquarters of the Cini Foundation.-Foundation:The...

of San Giorgio was established in 982, when the Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

monk, Giovanni Morosini asked the doge

Doge

Doge is a dialectal Italian word that descends from the Latin dux , meaning "leader", especially in a military context. The wife of a Doge is styled a Dogaressa....

Tribuno Memmo

Tribuno Memmo was the 25th Doge of Venice who served from 979 to 991. He was illiterate and according to preserved documents, he signed via signum manus....

to donated the whole island for a Monastery. Morosini drained the island's marshes next to the church to get the ground for building, and founded the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, and became its first abbot.

San Giorgio is now best known for the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

thumb|450 px|San Giorgio Maggiore seen across the water in full sun on an evening in JuneSan Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th century Benedictine church on the island of the same name in Venice, northern Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio and built between 1566 and 1610...

, designed by Palladio and begun in 1566.

In the early 19th century, after the Republic

Republic of Venice

The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

fell, the monastery was almost suppressed and the island became a free port

Free port

A free port or free zone , sometimes also called a bonded area is a port, port area or other area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location...

with a new harbour built in 1812. It became the home of Venice's artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

.

It is now the headquarters of the Cini Foundation

Cini Foundation

The Giorgio Cini Foundation , or just Cini Foundation, is a cultural foundation founded April 20, 1951 in memory of Count Giorgio Cini.-History:...

arts centre

Arts centre

An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...

, known for its library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

and is also home to the Teatro Verde open-air theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

See also