The Scrovegni hospice is an ancient hospice in Venice located in the Dorsoduro district, in Campo Santa Margherita.
The building was built thanks to the bequest of Maddalena degli Scrovegni, a Paduan noblewoman, nephew of Enrico degli Scrovegni (client of the Chapel of Padua). With a will dated May 21, 1421, the woman allocated a huge capital for the construction of a hospice to house 13 poor widows. The hospice, built on the southern bank of the Scoazzera stream (filled in in 1863) in Campo Santa Margherita, was initially administered by the Procuratia de Citra, survived the Napoleonic suppressions and still functions today under the administration of the I.R.E. from Venice.
The building is distinguished from the others in Campo Santa
Margherita thanks to the heavy neoclassical tympanum placed at the top,
in the center of which there is a rectangular window probably designed,
together with the seven windows below, to illuminate the attic. The
noble floor is characterized by the presence of seven rectangular
openings: the central cell of the building is illuminated by the three
windows above the now almost illegible dedication panel, while the two
pairs of lateral openings illuminate two rooms of the hospice. On the
ground floor there are three entrances: the two lateral ones allow
access to some shops, while the central opening leads to the hospice.
The building is separated to the right and left from the adjacent
buildings by two arched portions of masonry, differently from all the
other architraved openings on the facade. On the dedication stone placed
above the entrance door, it is laboriously read:
HOSPITIUM HOC –
VETUSTATE CONSUMATUM – NE PIA VOLUNTAS – MAGDALENAE DE SCRIVIGNIS
PATAVINAE – EFFECTU DEFICERE – PROCURATORES D. MARCI DE CITRA – A
FUNDAMENTIS RESTAU RAVERUNT YEAR SUN. MDCCLXXII.