The Scuola di Santa Maria e San Gallo degli Albanesi (Shkolla e Shën
Mërisë së Arbërorëvet in Albanian) is a building in the city of Venice,
located in the San Marco district at number 2762 in calle del Piovan.
It was one of the craft and devotional schools of the Serenissima
and, originally, gathered only Venetian Albanians residing or passing
through Venice among its brothers. Traditionally called "scola" because
it was not only a place of worship, but at the same time a meeting and
study place, it was one of the hearts of Albanian life in the city
together with the Greek rite church of San Giorgio dei "Greci".
The building is currently home to a private residence.
Already in 1368 the Council of the X had granted the formation of a
group of devoted Albanian people in San Gallo at the disappeared church
of San Severo; however, the concession was revoked in the same year. In
October 1442 the Albanians wrote a Mariegola, still in San Severo where
they had now settled for some years. Also in this case the Council of X
intervened (September 1443) which did not allow them to have their own
School adding that the constitution of this type of brotherhood was
reserved for Venetian citizens. Only in 1448 the Council allowed the
Albanians to move to San Maurizio.
In 1491 it was decided to
build the School on parish land together with some small houses and a
"hospital", buildings which were completed in 1497. In the same years
four arks were also made for the burial of the deceased confreres at
Santi Giovanni e Paolo and later they bought two more at the Frari.
Around 1531-1532 the façade was rebuilt, which as it was looked like
«a workshop of some vil art» and a stone altar on the ground floor,
which still exists. Four elegant reliefs of the Lombard school were
added to the façade, with the Virgin and Child in the center between
those of San Gallo and San Maurizio surmounted by a large relief, in
memory of the siege of Scutari, with Sultan Mehmed II observing the
castle . The latter is a clear allusion to the events of the time, in
which Albania, like all the Balkans, was seriously threatened by the
advance of the Ottoman Turks. Scutari itself had in fact fallen in 1479
and since then the Albanian community of Venice had considerably
increased.
In 1504-1508 the main hall, the Albergo, was decorated
with a cycle of teleri with Stories of the Virgin by Vittore Carpaccio,
largely the result of aid.
In 1567 the chapter of the Scuola
decided, given the decline in members, that «Italians of every nation»
should also be admitted and that the mandates in the offices of Gastaldo
and Vicar should be alternated regularly between Albanians and Italians.
In 1574 it was decided, with the approval of the Provveditori de Comun,
that the maidens receiving the graces (gifts assigned by the School)
should be an Albanian and an Italian, while the assisted poor will be
two Albanians and an Italian.
In 1780 the Albanian brotherhood
was suppressed and the building was replaced by the Scuola dei Pistori,
that is, of the bakers. In 1808, this school too, like the other
Venetian brotherhoods, was suppressed by the Napoleonic laws and its
artistic and decorative equipment was dispersed. Today Carpaccio's
canvases are scattered among the museums of Venice, Milan and Bergamo.