Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel)

Venice · Italy · 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

Where is Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel) located?

Ca' Soranzo (House of the Angel) is in Venedig, Italy.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.