Saverio Costanzo’s movie In memoria di me, completely shot at San Giorgio, gave their viewers the feeling of limitless spaces in a limited place.
A small island that extend its geographical borders opening minds to strong feelings enjoying a privilege few places have.
This enchanting place is lucky to be the island of the knowledge, of the right synthesis between shape and mind balance, which for ages has been finding here a breeding ground to immerse in speculations and dialectical discussions.
The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore went under deep changes, with the addition of some buildings that changed the intended use allowing a more rational use of them, even more appropriate for the requests of a world cultural center in the heat of Saint Mark’s basin.
The need of a new use of the island was born with the awareness of a “universal” mission to make San Giorgio a more open and inviting place, able to draw scholars and young researchers all over the world for extended period. The Cini Foundation can offer them extraordinary opportunities, equipment and functional facilities.
Among the most fascinating functional renovation, there is the so called Manica Lunga, a corridor 128 meters long and 7 wide, intended to become the main quarter of one of the most evocative libraries in the world. Imagine a very long corridor with monk cells at both sides, ending with a three mullioned window overlooking – just like hugging it - Saint Mark’s basin.
A space giving sensorial feelings.
The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore is a sequence of astonishing architectural interventions by Palladio and Longhena blended in a unicum of incomparable value.
Each place of Giorgio Cini Foundation have its own story. The most popular are the cloisters and the Palladian the last Supper, the Manica lunga and the Longhena’s Library.
However, there is a less famous place, which treasures a prestigious and ignored past: the Foundation’s Guest House. Twelve rooms, a big living room and a dining room, once a private parlor for Vittorio Cini’s friends.
There are a few places attended by the “big”. And even less are the ones where, surrounded by precious ornaments and antiques furniture, it is possible to meet each other admiring paintings by contemporary art masters such as Carena, Severini, Sironi, Vedova.
Only few of these places can brag such view: in fron of you the Salute Church and Saint Mark’s basin, on your right the Doge’s Palace and Riva degli Schiavoni, on your left Zattere and Giudecca island, on the background the sky and the waters of Venice.
In the island there is also a bar where you can enjoy a breath taking view of the Doge’s Palace and Saint Mark, without spending a fortune….
In 2007 the Teatro Verde was reopened to public: an incredible theatrical open air space suspended in an imaginary dimension. From this introduction come some precise projects: the use of new digital technologies, facilitate cultural and scientific exchange, reintroduce the role of bridge between cultures the Foundation always had, bring students and scholars here from all around the world, the research of new finantial and professional resources to destine these projects.
You would think that, given the typical stillness of Venice, San Giorgio is a separated entity, an island in which they do things, rather than talk about things….the new island.
