Venice Gardens Foundation promoted and realised the restoration of the extensive Garden of the Convent of the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore, in Venice, with its Antiche Officine and the adjoining Greenhouse. The project was also made possible with the support of the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte. The garden was opened to the public in October 2024, and the inauguration day on 25 October was attended, among others, by Adele Re Rebaudengo, president of the Venice Gardens Foundation, and Alberto Cavalli, general director of Fondazione Cologni.
The Venetian Foundation has been working since January 2020 on ‘In Venetia Hortus Redempotoris’, the project for the restoration, conservation and management of the Convent Garden, with its Kitchen Gardens, Meditation Chapels, Old Workshops, Greenhouse and Apiary, of the Palladian Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore, known as the Redentore. This is a site of enormous historical, symbolic and spiritual importance, dear to the hearts of Venetians and the world.
For centuries, the Convent Gardens, with their orchards (pomaria), herb gardens (horti simplicium), flowers, wooded areas and beehives, have represented an opportunity for meeting and exchange, and the beehives (apiaria) have been a valuable source of food and medicinal herbs, vital to the life of the community.
The Foundation entrusted the internationally renowned gardener and landscape architect Paolo Pejrone with the botanical restoration of the site. Alessandra Raso, whose experience includes the restoration of buildings of historical and artistic significance and collaboration with cultural institutions such as the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale, is responsible for the architectural restoration. Head gardener of the Orto Giardino is Eduard Bodi, an expert in floriculture and gardening, and appointed MAM-Maestro d'Arte e Mestiere by Fondazione Cologni in 2022.
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