Santa Caterina, Former church in Cannaregio, Venice, Italy

Santa Caterina is a deconsecrated Gothic church in Cannaregio, now part of the Liceo Marco Foscarini complex. It has three naves, and a wooden ceiling shaped like a ship's keel was destroyed by fire in 1977. A hanging choir (barco) on the rear wall was used by the Augustinian nuns.

Begun in the early 13th century by the frati del Sacco, the church was left unfinished when their order was suppressed in 1274. A wealthy merchant gave the building to Bortolotta Giustinian, who installed Augustinian nuns dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria; the church was completed only in the 15th century. In 1806 the Napoleonic state took over the convent and moved 28 nuns to Sant'Alvise, and in 1807 the complex became the Liceo di S. Caterina, renamed Regio Liceo Marco Foscarini in 1867.

The church was also known as Santa Caterina de' Sacchi, recalling the frati del Sacco who began it. On 25 November, the feast of Catherine of Alexandria, the Doge came here for the Festa dei Dotti. It held Veronese's Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1575), now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, and Tintoretto's c.1585 cycle of her life, now in the Palazzo Patriarcale.

The building now functions as part of a school and is accessible only during specific exhibitions. You should check ahead if you want to see the interior spaces.

The church was hit by an Austrian bomb in World War I. A fire on 25 December 1977, started during maintenance work, destroyed almost all of the 14th-century ship's-keel wooden ceiling and the 18th-century frescoes of the presbytery's dome. Veronese's Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine survived because it was already at the Gallerie dell'Accademia.