Sant'Anna, Former church in Castello, Venice, Italy

Sant'Anna is a deconsecrated former church on the Fondamenta Sant'Anna in Castello, Venice, facing the Ponte di Quintavalle. Its weathered red-brick facade has a large arched window with a dark grid of panes, two small square windows below it, and two white-framed rectangular windows near the base beside a black inverted-V metal support. Rebuilt from 1634 to 1659 by Francesco Contini as a single hall, it was later divided into two floors.

Giacomo da Fano bought land between the Rio di Castello and the San Pietro canal, and in 1242 a convent dedicated to Saints Anne and Catherine was erected with the concession of Bishop Pietro Pino. Benedictine nuns took it over in the 13th century. Suppressed under Napoleon in 1806–1807, the 31 nuns were moved to San Lorenzo; in 1817 the five altars and the floor went to San Biasio ai Forni. The convent became a naval college in 1810 and a Royal Navy hospital in 1867.

The church takes its name from Sant'Anna, to whom the convent was dedicated together with Santa Caterina in 1242. An inscription on the interior recalls the marangoni, calafati, remeri and segadori, the Arsenale shipwrights, caulkers, oar-makers and sawyers who worked nearby. The building was deconsecrated after 1807.

The building is closed to visitors and its entrance doors are typically secured by chains. You can view the exterior architecture and its location on a quiet canal in the Castello neighborhood from outside.

A nun who lived there wrote literary works describing convent life, including a notable text titled L'Inferno delle Monache. Her writings offer rare glimpses into the daily experiences and inner world of the sisters.