In Venice, in a cozy and bright urban space, stands the Great School of the Holy Mercy: a compact and elegant building born from the depths of the lagoon waters, a Venetian dream in shades of terracotta, a place in continuous evolution that evokes ancient and future ideals.
City, history, culture: La Misericordia is all this and much more.
A building that was born as a complex communicative space: even before being a multifunctional place, it was a manifesto of prestige and innovation, in accordance of the will of Doge Gritti.

Today the Misericordia is a fluid space where history and culture have a dialogue with the territory. A highly qualified and technologically advanced location that takes up the ancient social function of the School, declining it in a modern key.

Today the Misericordia is a project in progress, sustainable for the city of Venice and for the current historical moment: it is a space in which urban redevelopment, culture and social aggregation converge. A flexible and adaptable activity generator, oriented towards a single direction: the promotion of excellence, cultural exchange and opportunities, all in a single meeting.

THE STORY : Jacopo Sansovino and the Scuola Nuova

Veronese, Zanchi, Lazzarini, Pellegrini and last but not least Domenico Tintoretto, son of the famous Jacopo, were just some of the names that signed the decorations of a building that still maintains the charm and prestige with which it was conceived.
The complex story of the great school of the Holy Mercy continued in the following centuries. Unfinished at the time of Sansovino’s death, the “factory” was inaugurated only in 1583, but the completion of the building continued for another two hundred years. The end of the Serenissima forced the confreres to abandon the see. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the School had different uses: it first became military accommodation, then a warehouse and finally the State Archives.

From 1914 it became the fulcrum of the pedagogical and sporting activity of the Costantino Reyer gymnastics club which, despite many practical difficulties, made it the temple of Venetian sport. The singular relationship between the Scuola Grande and Reyer reached its peak in basketball, a sport that entered Italy in Venice, which ended up characterizing the identity of the company and adapting the spaces of the Misericordia to itself. The first floor of the building with the playing court and its famous wooden stands was consecrated as one of the temples of basketball, not only because it was the scene of epic challenges but also because of the exceptional nature of its spaces. The Reyer Gym was located at the Misericordia until 1991 when the Municipality of Venice entrusted Giovanni Battista Fabbri with the restoration of the building which, however, was never completed. The works will be completed only in 2015 thanks to a new project for the recovery of the Scuola Grande signed by the architect Alberto Torsello.