Campo San Tomà and Scoletta dei Calegheri Square

Campo San Tomà and the Scoletta dei Calegheri, memory of a shoemakers' confraternity

A few steps from the Basilica of the Frari, the Campo San Tomà is a small campo in San Polo overlooked by the church of San Tomà, a former parish church facing the Scoletta dei Calegheri. 
It is worth the detour between the Frari and the Rialto, above all for the Scoletta and its sculptures, a legacy of an ancient Venetian guild. Facing it stands the church of San Tomà, whose current appearance largely results from transformations carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is still listed as a religious building and rettoria: it is therefore not, contrary to what is sometimes indicated, a deconsecrated former church. 

The Scoletta dei Calegheri is a modest brick building that was the seat of the Venetian shoemakers' confraternity, founded in 1383 under the patronage of Sant'Aniano, a shoemaker from Alexandria whom Saint Mark is said to have healed and then converted according to an ancient hagiographic tradition.

The confraternity gathered the calegheri, makers of shoes and boots, and the zavatieri, specialized especially in slippers and clogs. It first met near the church of Santa Maria della Carità, where the relics of Sant'Aniano were venerated. In 1446, it acquired a building near San Tomà, which it had transformed before fully settling there in 1478. Shortly before the fall of the Republic, the Arte still numbered about 1,200 people spread across some 350 shops, a sign of the importance of this trade in everyday Venice.

After the Napoleonic suppressions, the building passed into private hands and notably served as a furniture store. Acquired by the City of Venice at the end of the 20th century, it now houses the San Tomà municipal library. In the first-floor room, there also remain fragments of anonymous 15th-century frescoes, among which an Annunciation and several figures of saints.

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Visiting tips

The interior of the Scholetta can be visited during the opening hours of the San Tomà library, access to which is free; it is, however, a working library and not a museum, which invites a discreet visit.

Sources and further information

Comune di Venezia - Biblioteca di San Tomà ; Rete Biblioteche Venezia - opening hours and services ; BeWeB - Chiesa di San Tomà ; Wikipedia (IT) - Scoletta dei Calegheri.