Corte Vecchia, between the Fondamenta dell’Abbazia and the Ponte della Sacca, owes its adjective to the ’Scuola Vecchia’: the original seat of the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, a confraternity of Battuti instituted in 1308 with the consent of the prior Pietro Civran and the permission of Doge Pietro Gradenigo — beside the homonymous abbey church founded in 939 on the grassy ground called Val Verde.