History

For the two centuries after its foundation before 829 the monastery of S. Zaccaria was probably the most valued in the city. Its first appearance in the will of Doge Justinian Particiaco that year saw the start of its exceedingly close association with ducal power in the city.

Although endowed by a member of that family, whose widow and daughter-in-law became nuns there, the specificity of S. Zaccaria resides not so much in the very prominent role that it played in the politics of the developing Venice, welcoming emperors, burying doges and keeping their memory, and reconciling warring parties, but even more so in the fact that, unlike many contemporary religious houses, it was never associated with one family of doges, but with the support and spiritual welfare of the Doge ex officio. This very close connection, making the monastery effectively a ducal one, not only gave it exceptional political influence, but also contributed to spreading its reputation well beyond the city, so that it was the only Venetian monastery to receive property grants from men and women on the Terraferma, on account of this connection.

The monastery’s remained powerful but less uniquely so once the doges became more a figurehead from the 12^th century onwards, but it continued to be the convent of choice for the aristocratic ladies of the city until its dissolution under Napoleon Bonaparte.