Long before Sant’Elena grew its 1920s quarters of plain rationalist housing, this corner of the island already held a much older institution: a convent rebuilt in 1439, handed to the Mantellate Sisters in 1930, and only turned into a hotel after the nuns finally left in 1999.
At a glance
The building at the corner of Calle Buccari belongs to the oldest institution on Sant’Elena, an island otherwise defined by the uniform 1920s housing built around it. Its convent and adjoining church passed to Benedictine Olivetan monks in 1407, who rebuilt it in 1439; the church was consecrated in 1515. In 1930 the complex returned to church use under the Mantellate Sisters, who ran it first as a private school and later as accommodation for pilgrims, until they left in 1999 and a long renovation converted it into what is now Hotel Indigo Venice – Sant’Elena.
Key facts
- Convent and church passed to Benedictine Olivetan monks: 1407; rebuilt 1439
- Church consecrated: 1515
- Returned to church use under the Mantellate Sisters: 1930 – first a private school, later pilgrim accommodation
- Nuns left; renovation to hotel: 1999
- Preserved: the historic facade, the inner portico, and the garden that was once the convent’s cloister
An island’s oldest corner, hidden among the newest
Sant’Elena’s familiar streetscape — plain brick apartment blocks built by the IACP through the 1920s and ’30s — grew up around a much older nucleus: the medieval church and convent of Sant’Elena itself, rebuilt in 1439 by Benedictine Olivetan monks and consecrated in 1515. The convent’s later chapter, as a school and then a pilgrim house run by the Mantellate Sisters from 1930, kept the building in continuous religious use for nearly seventy more years, until the sisters’ departure in 1999 opened the way for its conversion into a hotel — one that has kept the old facade, portico and cloister garden rather than erasing them.
Getting there
The building stands at Calle Buccari 10 on Sant’Elena, a short walk from the Sant’Elena vaporetto stop.
Sources
- indigovenice.com, “The Building” — on the 1930 return to church use, the Mantellate Sisters, and the 1999 conversion to a hotel.
- Wikipedia, “Chiesa di Sant’Elena (Venezia)” — on the 1407 Olivetan Benedictines, the 1439 rebuilding and the 1515 consecration.
- Stefano Vigolo, who photographed the building.
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Record researched and written by Stefano Vigolo for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
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