Cultural foundation · San Giorgio Maggiore · Venice

Giorgio Cini Foundation

The Giorgio Cini Foundation, known simply as the Cini Foundation, is a cultural foundation and research institute on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy. It was founded by the industrialist and politician Vittorio Cini on 20 April 1951 in memory of his son Giorgio, who died in an aeroplane accident near Cannes in August 1949.

At a glance

Type: Cultural foundation and research institute
Period: Founded 1951
Style: Set within the historic monastic complex of San Giorgio Maggiore
Location: San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy

Overview

The Cini Foundation is a Venetian art and research institute occupying the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, opposite St Mark’s Square. It was created in 1951 by Vittorio Cini in memory of his son Giorgio. Today it is a centre for cultural study, exhibitions and conservation of the island’s historic buildings.

History

Vittorio Cini, an industrialist and politician, established the foundation on 20 April 1951 as a memorial to Giorgio Cini, who had died in an aircraft accident near Cannes in August 1949. The foundation undertook the restoration of the former Benedictine monastery on San Giorgio Maggiore and turned the island into a cultural campus. It has since developed into a major research and exhibition institution in Venice.

What you see

The foundation’s grounds include the historic monastic buildings of San Giorgio Maggiore, restored and adapted for cultural use, together with libraries, exhibition spaces and gardens. Within the complex is the open-air Teatro Verde. The setting on its own island gives the foundation a distinctive presence on the Venetian lagoon.

Cultural significance

The Cini Foundation is one of Venice’s leading cultural institutions, known for its library, research programmes and exhibitions. Its rescue and reuse of the San Giorgio Maggiore complex is a notable example of post-war heritage conservation in the city.

Practical information

The foundation is on San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. For exhibition schedules, guided tours and opening hours, check the official website.

Getting there

San Giorgio Maggiore is reached by Venice’s vaporetto water-bus, with a stop on the island a short crossing from St Mark’s. Access is by water only; there is no road link.

Sources & resources

Wikipedia: Giorgio Cini Foundation. More cultural heritage guides at culturalheritageonline.com.

Find it on the map

Google Maps See the location on a full map → Street View Walk around the place virtually → OpenStreetMap Free community cartography →

The Giorgio Cini Foundation, born in 1951 at the behest of Vittorio Cini, in order to remember his son Giorgio who died tragically on August 31, 1949 in a flight accident in Cannes, is the first example in Italy of the creation of a private body that places between its main aims are humanistic research, in a period in which the focus of the collective interest was economics, science and technology. The choice made by Vittorio Cini to place the Foundation on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore is dictated by an extraordinary intuition. By electing the Island as the seat of the Foundation and placing its recovery and restoration among the statutory purposes, Vittorio Cini nominated his creature as heir to a centuries-old tradition, attributing to it the historical role and vocation of the institution whose mandate he intended to collect.



The first projects of the Foundation were aimed at solving some of the pressing problems that afflicted Italy and Venice in the immediate post-war period: on the one hand, the need for professional training of young people and, on the other, the lack of dedicated means and facilities to scientific and cultural research. Today, the Giorgio Cini Foundation is an internationally known cultural institution that continues to draw inspiration from its original vocation and stands out for being, at the same time, a center of study and a place for meetings and debates on contemporary issues. A space in which scientific activity constantly overlaps - with research projects and events that aim to improve &quot;knowledge of the world&quot; - and reflection on political and social current affairs that promotes multidisciplinary research and experiences the comparison between knowledge and different scientific and professional cultures, in order to provide new analysis and understanding tools, as well as favorable opportunities to &quot;build a new world&quot;.



The Giorgio Cini Foundation is also an invaluable treasure trove of literary, artistic, musical and archival treasures, a meeting point for cultures and ideas, an elected place for the search for truth and the dissemination of knowledge, which perpetuates the tradition of the abbey Benedictine and the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Proceeding consistently along the furrow traced by Vittorio Cini, the Foundation has also launched a new strategy for the enhancement of the island which has led to the creation of the International Center of Studies of Italian Civilization &quot;Vittore Branca&quot;, dedicated to the memory of the great Italianist and first Secretary General who was, with Vittorio Cini, the main initiator of the Venetian institution during the first fifty years of activity.


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Giorgio Cini Fondations