The Oratory of Ca' di Dio or church of Santa Maria della Ca' di Dio is a religious building in the city of Venice located in the Castello district.
The oratory is incorporated into the building complex of the Ca' di
Dio hospice, which has its facade on the Riva degli Schiavoni. The
hospice was built in 1272 on land donated for the purpose of building
lodgings for passing pilgrims heading for the Holy Land; later it was
converted into a hospice for poor women left alone. From the outset, the
complex was also equipped with a small oratory dedicated to Santa Maria
Assunta.
In 1544 the complex underwent a complete reconstruction
based on a project by Jacopo Sansovino whose drawings have been lost.
However, the works were interrupted only three years later and it is
therefore not clear whether the current façade of the oratory actually
corresponds to Sansovino's original project or is a partial realization
of it.
The oratory does not have a real facade as it is inserted in a continuum with the rest of the hospice which is a factory with a yellow ocher plastered wall. The only element that denotes its different function consists in the presence of two large tympanum windows located above the two entrance doors. In the middle of the windows there is a newsstand with a statue of the Madonna. Two circular rose windows surmount the two large windows and the whole is closed on the upper side by a horizontal frame supported by four square windows.