Venice, Veneto · 1926 · Prison
At a glance
The prison of Santa Maria Maggiore stands on the western edge of Venice, on ground cleared when the convent of the same name was demolished in 1900. Built through the 1920s and opened in 1926, it replaced the old prison on the Giudecca. On its wall, over a battlemented cornice, a winged lion of Saint Mark holds an open book with three words on it: CVSTODIT PVNIT MONET — it guards, it punishes, it warns.
Key facts
- Built: through the 1920s, on the site of the demolished Santa Maria Maggiore convent
- Opened: 1926
- Replaced: the previous Venetian prison on the Giudecca
- Site history: the convent was pulled down in 1900; the deconsecrated church beside it had become a tobacco factory
- Emblem: a lion of Saint Mark with the motto CVSTODIT PVNIT MONET
- Still in use: Casa Circondariale di Venezia Santa Maria Maggiore
- Coordinates: 45.4353, 12.3178
What you see
The prison presents to the street a long red front with white stone dressings, battlements along the parapet and a taller tower over the entrance — a nineteenth-century idea of a fortress, built in the twentieth. The windows are barred and small, and the whole elevation is designed to be read as what it is.
The piece worth stopping for is the lion. Carved in white stone against the red wall, winged, with a paw on an open book, it is the emblem of the Venetian Republic put on a building of the Italian state. The three words cut into a panel beneath it — guards, punishes, warns — state the purpose of the place without a word wasted.
The prison today
Practical information
- Seen from the public street or canal; the building is in use and not open to visitors.
Sources
- Ministero della Giustizia — Casa Circondariale di Venezia Santa Maria Maggiore
- History of the site: the convent demolished in 1900, the prison built through the 1920s and opened in 1926 in place of the Giudecca prison
Record researched and written by Stefano Vigolo for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
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The perimeter wall
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The prison front from the garden
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The lion of Saint Mark and its motto
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