A nursery, a primary and a middle school of the Canossian sisters in a yellow corner building of the 1930s, which still carries the name of the kindergarten it began as: the Asilo Vittoria. The date and the architect that online searches attach to it are reported here as what they are, unverified.
At a glance
The institute stands on Via Monte Santo in the Carpenedo quarter of Mestre, where OpenStreetMap records the house of the Canossian sisters. The inscription on the front reads «Istituto Maddalena di Canossa»; the board at the gate lists the three schools inside: the nursery school «Asilo Vittoria», the primary school «Maddalena di Canossa» and the state-recognised middle school «Maria Immacolata». The oldest of the three names, Asilo Vittoria, is the one the building is still known by.
What this page does not say. Stefano Vigolo, who photographed the institute in September 2014, reports from online searches that the historic building of the former Asilo Vittoria was designed in 1935 by the Venetian engineer and architect Angelo Scattolin and completed in 1936; an earlier search by our staff found mentions of a kindergarten of 1918 and of the Canossians’ arrival in 1936, and no trace of Scattolin. None of these dates has been found in a published source we could cite, and none is given as fact below.
Key facts
- Where: Via Monte Santo, Carpenedo, Mestre
- Run by: the Canossian Daughters of Charity, the congregation founded by Magdalene of Canossa, canonised in 1988
- Schools: nursery (Asilo Vittoria), primary (Maddalena di Canossa), middle school (Maria Immacolata), as listed on the board at the gate
- Date and architect: 1935–36 and Angelo Scattolin according to the photographer’s online searches; not confirmed by any published source found so far
- GPS: 45.4892, 12.2347 · Open in Google Maps (OpenStreetMap)
What is known, and what is believed
The Canossians are a Venetian story before they are a Mestre one. Magdalene of Canossa, a noblewoman of Verona, began her work among the poor in 1808; it was in Venice that she drew up the rule of her Daughters of Charity, and from Venice the congregation spread to Milan, Trent, Bergamo and the rest of northern Italy. She was canonised on 2 October 1988. A Canossian house in a growing suburb of Venice, with a nursery, a primary and a middle school, belongs to that tradition of «schools of charity».
On this building, what is believed comes from the photographer’s research: a kindergarten called Vittoria, a name that in Italy usually points to the years after 1918, later entrusted to the Canossians and housed, in the mid-1930s, in the present building. The regular front with its arched windows and the long, plain school wing beside it are consistent with the 1930s, but the date, the architect and the year the sisters arrived remain to be documented.
What you see
A three-storey block at the corner of two streets, in pale yellow plaster. The ground floor has rectangular windows with stone surrounds and the main door under a small cornice; the first floor three round-arched windows with keystones on each front, under the inscription band; the second floor plain rectangular windows below a dentilled cornice and a low hipped roof. Along Via Monte Santo a lower three-storey wing with regular rows of windows holds the classrooms. An iron railing on a low wall runs the length of the frontage, with a hedge and trees behind it and a statue in the garden near the corner.
Do you know more about this school?
If you know when the Asilo Vittoria was founded, when the Canossian sisters came to Mestre, who designed the building, or a document or photograph that tells its story, write to Sofia at sofia@culturalheritageonline.com or through the contact page. What arrives with a source goes into this page, with your name as the contributor.
Nearby
- Civic Tower – Clock Tower — the centre of old Mestre, to the south-west
Gallery
Sources
- Stato della Città del Vaticano, Saint Magdalena of Canossa: the foundress, the beginnings of 1808, the canonisation of 2 October 1988
- Diocesi di Verona, Santa Maddalena di Canossa (PDF): the rule drawn up in Venice, the spread of the congregation from Venice to northern Italy, the schools of charity
- Stefano Vigolo, photographs of 28 September 2014 and notes to the editorial staff (2026): the identification of the institute and the attribution to Angelo Scattolin, 1935–36, from his online searches. Not a published source: reported as a belief in the text
- OpenStreetMap, Suore Canossiane, Via Monte Santo, Mestre: the position
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Become a Cultural Heritage Online photographer
Share your photos of places: they stay published under your name as the author. The more they're seen, the more you get noticed — and soon a contest will reward the most appreciated photos.
Log in or sign up free to add a photoIs this page about you?
This page is read by travellers and heritage enthusiasts who find it on Google. Tell us how you are connected to this place and we will take it from there.