The church of the Madonna dell'Orto is located in one of the quietest parts of Venice, Cannaregio.

The church was originally founded by the order of the Umiliati or the Humble Ones, in the 14th Century, and the church was dedicated to St Christopher. Its priests kept themselves poor in homage to the paupers for whom the order was founded. Christopher was the name for the 'bearer of Christ,' the meanderer in search of a powerful king to whom he could subject himself. This, of course, is a metaphor for a man searching for spiritual values. He met a Child on the banks of a river where he was ferrying people across on his shoulders, since he was an extremely large man. In the midst of their journey, he learned that the Child, whose weight increased on the short journey so that he could no longer bear it, was the Son of God. He had found his King. Thus St. Christopher became the patron saint of travelers, merchants, pilgrims, sailors--anyone on a journey. St. Christopher has not been forgotten here; he's right above the door. He may have been sculpted by Bartolomeo Bon. The location of the church is in the northernmost part of Venice, in the district of Cannaregio. The long quay only a few yards to the north was the disembarcation point for travelers and merchants to and from the mainland. This was a bustling commercial area centuries ago, but no longer.

The order of the Umiliati tried to apply religious principles to the operations of the woolen industry, but it slowly declined in the Venetian community, and the religious order itself lost credibility over time.

The present church was built in the 15th Century by a reforming group called the Secular Clergy of San Giorgio in Alga. It has the characteristic exposed brick design that was popular then, with Istrian stone statue decorations. It took on its new name, Madonna dell'Orto, because of a sculpture of the Virgin and Child that was found in a nearby garden (orto) in 1377, and eventually moved inside the church. The sculpture was said to have miraculous powers.

The tripartite design of the façade reminds us of the great early basilicas like the Frari and Giovanni e Paolo, but it is a much smaller church.