The school of devotion and charity dedicated to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel gained its official recognition from the Council of X (Ten) on 22 September 1597, and was elevated to the status of Grand School in 1767. The confraternity built its present headquarters (designed by the architects Caustello and Longhena in the 17th century) beside the church belonging to the Carmelite monks. There the confraternity had its initial headquarters and an altar dedicated to the Virgin. The original antique furnishings inside the halls of the school have been entirely preserved. These consist of important oil paintings, rich stucco ceilings and original embroidered and carved wood.

The confraternity brothers held their assemblies to approve proposals made by the Grand Guardian in the Chapter Hall. The Grand Guardian was the most important representative of the school elected annually by the confraternity brothers together with the “Giunta.”

Giambattista Tiepolo painted nine incomparable ceiling canvases In the Chapter Hall between 1739 and 1749, decorating the angles with a series of paintings depicting the cardinal and theological virtues and other attributes of the Spirit. All of these images make reference to the Virgin Mary, with angels and cherubims bearing the scapular (the symbol of the devotion), along with the mariegola, the book containing the rules of the confraternity. In the centre of this great depiction we find the following narration: “The Apparition of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to St. Simon Stock while she hands him the Scapular.” The rooms of the archive and of the hotel are also remarkable, where we find the masterpieces of G.B. Piazzetta (“Judith and Holofernes”) and of Padovanino (“The Assumption of the Virgin Mary”).

The aim of the school consisted in giving religious and economic support to the confraternity brothers, the distribution of alms to the poor and to the ill as well as taking part in their funerals, and the furnishing of dowries for girls either for their weddings or for their monastic professions. With the exception of the members of the nobility and of the religious, the confraternity brothers were lay persons and members of the society.

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