Santa Maria delle Penitenti
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The church of Santa Maria delle Penitenti, which lies in the sestier di Canaregio, was built in the 18th century to a design by Giorgio Massari. Inaugurated in 1763, its façade was never completed.
The church was part of a large complex, the Pio Loco delle Penitenti, whose stated goal was to "support poor penitent women, instituted under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and with the patronage of the Patriarch San Lorenzo Giustinian, for their redemption from the clutches of the devil." The rules of the institution required the entrants to be between 12 and 30 years, to have been living in Venice for at least a year, to be healthy in mind and body, not to pregnant, and to have withdrawn from prostitution for at least three months. |
Santa Maria delle Penitenti
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