Santa Giustina, Venice, Former church in Castello, Venice, Italy.
Santa Giustina is a deconsecrated church in Castello, Venice, on the Campo Santa Giustina. Only the opulent facade of Istrian stone survives, its crowning pediment demolished in 1844; it is tripartite, with tall Corinthian half-columns on carved bases, two barred side windows and a round-arched portal flanked by winged putti. Three Soranzo cenotaphs stand above, and two Gothic windows with pierced tracery are walled inside.
Legend attributes its founding to Saint Magnus in the 7th century; it was consecrated in 1219 and depended on San Pietro di Castello. In 1448 a papal bull assigned it to Augustinian nuns from Murano. The facade was rebuilt in 1640 by Baldassare Longhena at the Soranzo family's expense. The parish was suppressed in 1807, the order dissolved in 1810, and in 1844 the building became a military school.
The facade was commissioned in 1640 by the Soranzo family and built by Baldassare Longhena to glorify their house, not the parish. Each year on 7 October, the feast of Saint Justina and anniversary of Lepanto, the Doge came here in official procession, and coins bearing the saint's image, called giustine, were struck for the occasion.
The building is located in the Castello district and can be accessed through the canals and streets of the neighborhood. Since it is a former church, visitors should check current opening times and accessibility options before planning a visit.
The building was long associated with Augustinian nuns who lived and worshiped there for centuries. The nuns departed as the structure lost its religious function in the late 1800s, marking the end of an important chapter in its past.
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