San Servolo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

San Servolo is an Italian island in the Venetian Lagoon, to the southeast of San Giorgio Maggiore. (45.418654 N, 12.35698 E)

View of San Servolo.

[edit] History

From at least the eighth century and for almost five hundred years, Benedictine monks lived on this island. They were joined later by nuns escaping from the convents of Saints Leone and Basso on the island of Malamocco which was destroyed by a seaquake. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the nuns departed, but they were soon replaced by a few dozen other nuns, who were fleeing the Turkish invasion of Crete. However, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, only a few were left, and soon thereafter the Senate of the Republic of Venice designated San Servolo as the site of a new military hospital, needed due to the continuing war against the Turks. Later the hospital was used to care for the mentally ill. (As a consequence, the question "Ma ti xe de S. Servolo?"— "Are you from San Servolo?"— was commonly used to ask whether someone was crazy.

In 1978, government-instituted reforms of psychiatric treatment resulted in the closure of the hospital. The next year, the Venice government established on the island the "Istituto per le Ricerche e gli Studi sull´Emarginazione Sociale e Culturale" (Institute for the Study of Social and Cultural Marginalization) to preserve the documents associated with the history of the psychiatric hostpital. Venice International University, a center for research and education and a collaboration among ten universities from around the world, was formed on San Servolo in 1995.

Also noteworthy is the rich flora of San Servolo originally planted for the island's pharmacy which was used to supply medicine to the military.

[edit] Arts and letters

Like the rest of Venice, San Servolo has inspired generations of writers and artists — particularly its history as an insane asylum.

Recently, San Servolo has started hosting an annual international artist residency and has become the site for numerous exhibitions, festivals and performances.