The Scuola Grande di San Marco is a major Venetian confraternity building in the Castello district, beside the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo. It began as the Scuola dei Battuti in 1260 and later became one of Venice’s most important “scuole grandi,” with a Renaissance façade by leading Venetian architects and a later life as part of the city’s hospital complex.
 
It was founded as a religious lay confraternity and took on the name of Saint Mark by 1437, when it had grown influential and wealthy enough to commission a grander headquarters. The building is now associated with the city’s medical and cultural heritage, including the Museum of the History of Medicine and the historical medical library.
 
Interesting facts...
 San Marco was actually very powerful almost as a kind of “state within the state” competing in status with Venice’s political institutions. That scale of influence is part of why the building accumulated such rich art, books, and ceremonial space over time.