San Giorgio in Alga is an island of the Venetian 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...

, 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...

, laying between 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 Fusina (a frazione

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

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...

  on the coast, near Marghera

Marghera

Marghera is a frazione of the comune of Venice, Italy. It includes the industrial area known as Porto Marghera or Venezia Porto Marghera....

).

History

After a Benedictine monastery was founded about 1000 AD, more monasteries followed. In 1717, a fire burnt most of the buildings. Since 1799 there was a political jail, but nowadays the island is completely abandoned.

In the 15th century, Louis Barbo

Louis Barbo

Louis Barbo , also referred to as Luigi Barbo or Ludovico Barbo, was a Roman Catholic Bishop and a canon regular of the Benedictine abbey at San Giorgio in Alga, in Venice, Italy.He joined the Benedictine order in 1409...

the canon regular of the abbey instituted reforms which were quickly adopted in other monasteries. One of Barbo's reforms was to allow his monks to sleep in separate cells.

The island was used in 1944 as a secret base for German military personnel training under the auspices of Italian Lt-Cmdr Wolk to master mine laying against Allied ships as free-diving frogmen. To avoid being discovered they only practiced at night.