The Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista is a confraternity building located in the San Polo sestiere of f Venice.
Founded in 1261, San Giovanni Evangelista is the second oldest scuola in Venice. Though scuola developed a primary meaning of “school”, in Venice these organisations retain their medieval Latin meaning of confraternities, social organisations founded on spiritual principles. Their main buildings were typically used as meeting and assembly halls, and for the distribution of charity. The founders of San Giovanni were a confraternity of flagellants who took part in religious ceremonies, whipping their backs and spraying blood onto the pavements as they processed through the city. This practice was outlawed in the city of Venice in the same year the scuola was founded.
