The hole of the devil at Palazzo Soranzo in Venice

Near St Mark's Square in Venice, there is a building that has a relief on the facade with a carved angel and above it there is a strange little hole, reminiscent of a mysterious event of 1552.

At that time a lawyer lived here from the Curia of the Doge who posed as a pious man but in reality had become rich by exploiting the poor.

One evening he invited to dinner Friar Matthew Bascio and showed him a trained monkey in his home. The monk immediately recognized him as the Devil and asked why he was there. He said that he was waiting to take the lawyer's soul to hell but he could not because every evening he recited a prayer to the Virgin Mary.

The monk then ordered the Devil to leave the house immediately but he accepted to do that only if he could do some damage, and so on his way out he made a hole the wall.
The lawyer then repented his sins and he put the newsstand with the angel so that the devil could no longer enter the building through the hole in the wall.