History

The building that houses H3 was originally the Benedictine Convent of Saints Cosmas and Damian, founded in 1481 by six nuns for noble daughters. It was constructed in two phases over twenty-five years, first as a convent and then as a church, and became a center for art due to the wealth brought by the nuns. In 1806, Napoleon forced the closure of the Church and evicted the nuns and the convent became a warehouse, and then a barracks. Most of the artwork was either lost or destroyed in this period, with only a dozen paintings remaining today that are in museums like the Accademia. The church was abandoned and striped of fixed furnishings, stone materials and paintings, altars, sculptures, and anything else worth some value for scrap or material. Overall it was violated by looters and desecrated. In 1887, the convent temporarily became a hospice for cholera victims and afterwards converted into a textile factory in 1897, remaining as the Herion Garment Factory until the 1970s.

The Herion Textile Company would remain in the church complex for over 80 years before closing. The factory was incorporated in the church during the industrialization of Giudecca due to its cheaper land property compared to historical Venice with its isolated location. During this time a temporary second floor and third was constructed and the entire church was whitewashed, covering remaining historical art pieces not already pillaged and hiding the frescos from view. The hall and apsidal chapels were divided into those three floors supported on two rows of pillars to increase production space for the factory. Machining equipment was installed on these floors including hoists, steam piping, cement baths, electrical wiring and exhaust fans. The director’s office was the cupola where the frescos were located beneath the dome. Similarly, the deposito was used as a storage facility by the company, with similar alterations added to the building as well. After the company’s closure, the church was in a very critical condition that required extensive work to restore.

When acquired by the Herion Accelerator in 2008, the former convent was refurbished to its current configuration for hosting startup companies recruited locally in the Veneto region, requiring almost 9 million euro to fully restore garnered from the European Union and Donations. During this period, the nave was filled with a glass cube three stories high, containing 12 large offices, meeting rooms and co-working spaces, while the apses were left to their full heights. This event space was decorated with the original repaired frescos. In addition to work on the church, the deposito was converted into a three-floor workspace containing 23 offices, some common spaces for meetings and a cafeteria on the ground floor with a kitchen area.

Originally, 38 startups signed up to work from the accelerator and use resources provided by the organization, later declining to four companies in 2016 before the accelerator closed down.While not much information is provided about the fledgling startups, the Herion Accelerator faced several issues. Issues with heating, the elevator, and internet service led many tenants to leave. A lack of general building management caused these unwarranted problems that were a disservice to the startups and created a bad relationship with the factory. The idea of creating an accelerator had potential, but the poor management and infrastructure induced its failure and diaspora of startups. In essence, the owners of the Herion used the space as an area for startup companies to do work, failing not only to provide useful elements like internet, but also to do anything that would make their companies more likely to succeed.

Serenissima Development and Preservation through Technology, commonly known by its shorthand name “SerenDPT”, is a Venetian-based organization that develops innovative and socially responsible business models addressing problems within the city, ranging from preserving historic public art with the initiative PreserVenice to optimizing Venetian transportation with the daAaB app. Their mission is to create employment in the city of Venice and surrounding islands through innovative startups that assist in solving these local problems. They aspire to use their solutions to be exported to other cities around the world.

SerenDPT needed a central facility in which they could house startup companies, so they presented a proposal for the previous Herion Accelerator, after the accelerator failed, to produce the desired economic development and Venice issued a Request for Proposals (RFP). SerenDPT was thus awarded the use of the ex-church and the management of the ‘deposito’ for 9 years. SerenDPT nicknamed the complex H3, to mark the third rebirth of the Herion complex, from garment factory to accelerator to startup factory. SerenDPT’s plan is to create and house startup companies in the former church. This is unlike traditional incubators, which typically host and mentor external startups from a variety of fields. SerenDPT aims to create at least 100 well-paid jobs before the expiration of the lease in 2027. Thus the former garment factory will be made a factory once again but producing startup companies, rather than textile products.

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