In one of the most beautiful islands of the Venetian lagoon is the Monastery of Saint Francis of the Desert.
The retreat traditionally dated back to 1220, when Saint Francis of Assisi, back to the Egypt, visited Venice, but it seems to be just a legend, rather than true history.
Certainly, in 1228, the patrician Jacopo Michiel, owner of the island, in agreement with Saint Antony from Padua, built a church in the name of Saint Francis. This is the first church dedicated to Saint Francis. In March 1233, Michiel gave the island to the Franciscan order, who built a convent there.
The name “Saint Francis of the Desert” comes from the fact that, two centuries later, the deterioration of the island provoked the abandon of it by the Franciscan friars.
In 1453 Pio II gave the island to the Friars Minor, who renovated the church and the convent, building the Renaissance cloister. Forty years after, Clemente VIII let the Friars Minor take residence in the island and they lived there continuously until 1806, when the Napoleonic suppressions obliged them to retire in the Venice convent of San Bonaventura. 
Through the secularization, the convent, built of 31 little cells, was designated to explosive warehouse and the whole island to military barraks. In 1856 the Austrian emperor Francesco I offered the island to the Patriarch of Venice, who in turn gave it forever to the Franciscan friars, who came back there after more than six hundred years. Starting from 1858 many restoration works follows, bringing to light the apses of the oratory, the old church’s foundation. Today the island can be reached just with private boats, since public boats do not stop there.
Useful information:
Address: Isola di San Francesco del Deserto cap 30100 - Venezia
Opening time: 9.00-11.00 /15.00-17.00
For groups the reservation is needed.
Closed on Monday.
Closed on 17 september in the morning (Feast of S. Francis' stigma).
Closed on 4 october in the morning (Feast of S. Francis).
The visit is guided by a Franciscan.
Price: free offer
Contacts:
Phone: (+39)0415286863
E-Mail: info@isola-sanfrancescodeldeserto.it
Web: http://www.isola-sanfrancescodeldeserto.it
How to get there: private vehicle
