The Dalmatian School represents a unique reality in the history of the city of Venice: it is an association of citizens of Dalmatian origins, which for over five centuries continuously preserve timeless masterpieces and keep alive some traditions of mother-earth, surviving the same Serenissima . We wish to welcome these cultural and artistic patrimony to the welcome guests.
The schools are an ancient Venetian institution; these are lay confraternities, some present in Venice since the ninth century. For over seven hundred years they were a fundamental part of the social, political, economic and religious organization of the Serenissima.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century there were more than 200 schools; the "craft schools", real corporations played an important role in the protection and development of the arts and crafts (woolers, shoemakers, jewelers, sailors, blacksmiths, etc.); next to these were the Devotion Schools and the National Schools (Greeks, Albanians, Lucchesi, Milanesi). Among these the Dalmatian School should be counted. It should be noted that the geographical maps of the time define the Adriatic Sea as the Gulf of Venice.
On March 24, 1451, at the request of the Dalmatians residing in the city and with the Decree of the Council of Ten, the Dalmatian School of the Saints was founded. Giorgio and Trifone, still supported today by a Guardian Grande and a Council of Chancellery.
The School was the cenacle of the Dalmatians, who for business or cultural reasons resided in Venice or had frequent relations with the city: they were sailors, workers, artisans, traders, shipowners, men of culture, who for various reasons frequented the city of Venice and felt the need to have in it a reference not only anagraphic, but also a place with its own church, where to keep the relics of patron saints, in which to celebrate a wedding or a funeral, where to enjoy moral, economic or simply follow their business closely.
If it is true that it was born as a School of the Dalmatian Nation, it is also evident that the cultural, political and economic mixture of the Dalmatians with Venice made sure that they, inserted in the Republic of the "Serenissima", considered this their homeland and for the wellbeing of this was spent.
The history of Dalmatia and Zadar, its capital, has for centuries developed and intersected with that of Venice and Italy. In fact, Dalmatia represented a sure defense against the Ottoman expansionism that threatened Europe itself.
It is well known that the Italian cities of the eastern Adriatic coast looked to Venice as the Lady of the Adriatic and in exchange for their protection provided soldiers to the Army and the Navy of the Serenissima, but few know that in battle the defense of the Gonfalone di S Marco hoisted on the flagship, was entrusted to the harassment and valor of the Dalmatian sailors of Perasto, a town located in the Boka Kotorska, today in Montenegro.
In 1806 Napoleon ordered the suppression of convents and of all the Venetian schools, which thus largely ceased to carry out their centuries-old function. However, this imposition did not affect the School of San Rocco and the Dalmatian School: the first perhaps enjoyed the aegis of San Rocco, the French Saint of Montpellier; the second, he had from his the fact that the French showed particular attention to Dalmatia.
A fortunate peculiarity of the Schiavoni School of Dalmatians is therefore that of having survived the fall of the Venetian Republic, which, with Napoleon, as we said earlier, had led to the abolition of all the schools and the invocation of their assets, including works of art. This is why, visiting it, you find yourself in one of Venice's best preserved and authentic interiors, and the refined simplicity of the Venetian Renaissance home gives an even greater charm to the paintings made by Vittore Carpaccio between 1502 and 1510, which make up the great reason of interest of the School. It is no coincidence that John Ruskin, in his long search for lost atmospheres, has been particularly fascinated by the Dalmatian school and the Carpaccio and has dedicated some of his most enthusiastic pages to it.