H3 Factory

The church, which was consecrated in 1583 and dedicated to the twins Cosma and Damiano, was part of the adjacent Benedictine convent founded in 1481 by the abbess Marina Celsi.

Over time the interior was gradually decorated with altars and increasingly embellished by the most celebrated painters working in Venice. In the 18th century on the walls you could admire paintings by Palma il Giovane, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Padovanino, Ricci and others. With the fall of the Serenissima republic in 1797, religious communities throughout Venice were forcibly closed or experienced hardships. The convent was disbanded in 1806. This led to the dispersion of all the artistic heritage that was preserved there except for the frescoes. Most of the paintings are currently at the Gallerie dell'Accademia. 

With the Napoleonic invasion the Church closed, the nuns were removed and the church assumed the function of infirmary and warehouse.

In 1887, during the industrial revolution,  the church was sold to  a private company owned by the Herion family, which transformed it into a factory for the production of yarns and textile products. Its interior was turned upside down following the construction of two floors that divided it into three floors destined for production. The factory closed exactly 100 years later, in 1987.

Thanks to the commitment of the Municipality of Venice a patient restoration (co-financed by the Veneto Region through European Regional Development Funds) was carried out. The work, based on the project and construction supervision of the architect Claudio Spagnol, began in 2003 and continued until 2008. The project aimed to return the church to the city and establish an incubator for high-tech companies.