“Isola Sant’Angelo della Polvere”
2013
Media: pastel on card
Size: 17,5 x 17,5 cm
The island is about 4 miles from Venice along the canal that leads from Sacca Fisola to Fusina. The island of Sant’Angelo della Polvere was founded in 1060 by Doge Domenico Contarini , who gave it the name of S. Angelo of Concordia. A church with a monastery was built for the Benedictines of the Monastery of St. Nicholas of Lido; they also housed the nuns who devoted their convent at St. Michael the Archangel . In 1474 the nuns left the island to move to S. Cross on the Giudecca. The buildings were restored by Carmelite friars who resided there from 1515 to 1554. They had to leave the island at the behest of the Senate so it could be used for the manufacture of gunpowder (which is where its current name derives from). A terrible fire caused by lightning in 1689 caused the almost total destruction of the island. From then until World War II it was used for military purposes.
