History
The Legend of Sant’Elena and the history of our Hotel There is a legend that tells the story of the birth of an island. The Sant’Elena area takes its name from this legend.Legend has it that the remains of Sant’Elena (Saint Helena) were transported from Constantinople, but that the ship carrying them ran aground upon entering the Lagoon, on the banks near the Island of Olivolo in the S. Pietro di Castello area. All efforts to get the ship to float again proved useless and the sailors decided to offload all its goods on the nearby island, to make it lighter. This also included the urn that contained the remains of Sant’Elena.
Once they had succeeded in freeing the ship they decided to reload all its goods. They brought everything back on board, but when the urn containing the Saint’s body was brought on board, the ship became trapped once again. As soon as the urn was taken off, the ship again began to float. The sailors believed that this strange phenomenon was the Saint’s way of telling them that she wanted to remain on the deserted island. However, the urn was not abandoned – members of the Augustinian order built the first chapel in 1028 and later built a convent and church. In 1400 the Augustinians were succeeded by the Olivetan Benedictines, who in 1439 built the convent and Church that can still be seen today.
Over the years, the convent has frequently been used as a place of welcome. The church was de-consecrated in 1810, transformed into a warehouse and all its property sold by Napoleon to fill his army’s coffers. Later in the nineteenth century it was used by the Admirals of the Royal Fleet as a sort of holiday island. Only in 1920 was the surrounding sandbank, which was used as a military training area, reclaimed and then built on. This led to the creation of the current island of Sant’Elena, connected by three bridges to the original Island that was the home of the church.
In 1930 the church was opened to the faithful once more and entrusted to the order of the Servants of Mary. The body of the Saint was returned to the church and the imposing Renaissance door showing General Cappello on his knees before the Saint was restored.In the same period, Mantellate nuns acquired the convent and created the “Santa Giuliana Falconieri Institute”, a private educational institution with a primary school on the ground floor, middle school on the first floor, secondary school on the second floor and accommodation on the top floor.
The institute was very well known and respected in Venice, but with the creation of state schools the number of students diminished considerably and the Sisters no longer had the means to manage the schools. For several years they offered accommodation to believers who came to Venice on pilgrimage, but later decided to leave the structure.
Hotel Sant’Elena was created in 1999-2000 after significant restoration work, especially with regards to layout of the rooms and open spaces. However, the distinctive historical features and character of the building were preserved, as well as the external facade, the inner portico and the garden of what was once the Cloister.
The property has been run as a hotel since 2005 and in November of the same year Hotel Sant’Elena became part of the Best Western’s group’s “Premier” category – which indicates a standard of excellence possessed only by the best hotels. The hotel’s restaurant “Valentine’s” was inaugurated in 2007. It is the jewel in the hotel's crown and has already won a mention in the prestigious “Gambero Rosso” guide.