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Frontal view; Seventeenth-century sources attribute the design of the church of Santa Maria della Presentazione (also called Santa Maria 'delle Zitelle') to Andrea Palladio, even though recent researches have uncovered neither documentary traces nor drawings related to his possible activity there. In reality, the majority of scholars have expressed strong doubts concerning such an attribution. The church forms part of an ecclesiastical complex created by the Jesuit Benedetto Palmi in order to assist poor girls [who had no dowry, 'zitelle' in Italian] and although the building site on the Giudecca was acquired in 1561, works on the church began after Palladio's death. The first stone was laid in 1581 and the church consecrated in 1588. Source: Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (Palladio Centre and Museum) ; http://www.cisapalladio.org/ (accessed 1/26/2008)