The Oratorio dei Crociferi is a small museum in Venice which houses significant paintings by Jacopo Palma il Giovane. It is located in Campo dei Gesuiti, in the Cannaregio district.
It was founded in the 12th century together with the hospital run by the Crocigeri, which later became a hospice and is still used for its original function. Born to give accommodation and care to those who were leaving for the Holy Land, during the fourteenth century it was transformed into a shelter for poor women who received care and accommodation here and learned a manual trade. Destroyed by fire in the following century, Doge Pasquale Cicogna supported its restructuring and decoration, culminating in the works of Palma il Giovane. Following the suppression of the Order in 1656, their assets, including the oratory, passed to the Jesuits. Heavily damaged by the flood of 4 November 1966, the Oratory was closed to the public for eighteen years, to allow for the necessary restoration works.
The oratory has a simple Gothic facade and an aerial passage that connects it to the Palazzo degli Zen, a noble family who benefited it in the XIII century with the doge Renier Zen. Inside, the pictorial cycle, painted between 1583 and 1592, narrates episodes relating to the Crocigeri and the two benefactor doges. Even the building opposite, with a portal surmounted by crosses, testifies to the presence of that order. Remains of the ancient church are also the paintings by Palma il Giovane kept in the nearby Jesuit sacristy.