The Great School of the Carmini

The school of devotion and charity dedicated to S. Maria del Monte Carmelo (vulgar "dei Carmini") obtained official recognition from the Council of Ten on 22 September 1597, and was elevated to Grande in 1767.

The brotherhood had built the current seat , designed by Caustello and Longhena, during the seventeenth century next to the church that belonged to the Carmelite monks, where the Confraternity had its initial seat and its own altar dedicated to the Virgin.

The Scuola Grande dei Carmini is located at the corner between Campo dei Carmini and Campo Santa Margherita.

The main south facade overlooks Campo Santa Margherita, the West facade overlooks Campo Carmini; a third facing east overlooks calle del Nonzolo.

The closeness of the School to the convent church is evident, which shows the close bond that has always existed between the Carmelite Fathers and the Confreres of the School.

The internal rooms of the School have fully preserved the original antique furniture, consisting of important oil paintings, rich stucco ceilings and original carved wooden dossals.

In the Chapter Hall, where the confreres gathered in assembly to approve the proposals made by the Guardian Grande, the most important representative of the school elected annually by the confreres together with the "Giunta", Giambattista Tiepolo painted the nine incomparable canvases between 1739 and 1749 of the ceiling depicting at the top the series of theological, cardinal virtues and other attitudes of the spirit, all referring to the Virgin, angels and cherubs bearing the scapular, the symbol of devotion, and the mariegola, which contains the rules of the brotherhood; in the center the large painting tells of "The apparition of the Madonna del Carmelo to San Simone Stock while she gives him the scapular".

Also of note in the Archives and Hotel Rooms are the masterpieces of G.B. Piazzetta (Giuditta and Oloferne) and Padovanino (The Assumption of the Virgin).

The purpose of the School, whose brothers were lay and belonging to the class of citizens, with the exclusion of nobles and religious, consisted in giving religious and economic support to the brothers, in dispensing alms to the poor and the sick and to contribute to their funerals, to provide the girls with dowry for marriage or for monastication.

All the rooms of the School are intended for museum visits, as well as religious and cultural events that take place in the chapel on the ground floor or in the Chapter Hall located on the first floor (16 x 9 m).

Map: The Great School of the Carmini