The idea of the Governors of the Pietà Hospital was to create a building that had to perform the dual function of a place of worship and an auditorium for music. The church was so called because it was once located next to the city's ancient orphanage, located in Calle della Pietà.

The church has always been linked to the name of Antonio Vivaldi, master of 18th-century Venetian music, who held his violin lessons here, and composing many of his masterpieces, which were then performed by the young women of the hospice and adjacent hospital.

Outside the building we find a plaque from 1548, in which intimidations and excommunications are made against those who abandoned their children in the Pietà orphanage.

Its interior is characterized by two wrought iron choirs placed along the side walls, but what stands out above all is the fresco by Giambattista Tiepolo, La Fortezza e la Pace, located in the ceiling of the church, which seems to open the boundaries of the church to the vastness of the sky and the altarpiece on the main altar by Giambattista Piazzetta, The Visitation of Mary to Saint Elizabeth.

Even today it is possible to attend concerts inside the church, despite the oval shape does not improve the acoustics.