Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel)

Venedig · Italien · Palace

The lawyer's tame monkey ran the household — until a Capuchin friar saw what it really was. An angel still guards the hole in the facade.

The palace on Calle del Remedio, a step behind St Mark's Square, is known as the Casa dell'Angelo after a sculpted angel on its front. Legend says the lawyer Iseppo Pasini lived here, devoted to the Virgin yet shamelessly rich from usury against the poor. A trained monkey moved about the house handling the chores. When the Capuchin friar Matteo da Bascio came to dinner, he saw by grace what the animal really was: the devil himself, sent to seize Iseppo's soul. The friar drove it out with exorcism, and as the beast fled it punched a hole through the wall. Matteo had an angel set above the hole to guard the house. The angel is still there, and so is the hole — Venetians still call it il foro del diavolo, the devil's hole.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel)?

Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel) ligger i Venedig, Italien.