Description
The Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute is the great domed church at the Punta della Dogana, at the mouth of the Grand Canal, facing the St Mark's Basin: one of the symbols of Venice, and the masterpiece of Venetian Baroque. It is an ex-voto to the Madonna for the end of the plague of 1630.
Eighty thousand dead in the city, six hundred thousand in the whole state, the doge and the patriarch among them. The Venetians promised the Madonna a church if she saved them. The vow was made in October 1630.
The contagion had arrived with an ambassador of the Duke of Mantua. Shut up in the lazaretto, he only had to meet a carpenter to spread the disease, starting from Campo San Lio.
To make room for the church an old religious complex next to the Dogana was demolished, and to hold it up an enormous number of piles were driven into the ground. The competition was won by Baldassare Longhena, with a church “in the form of a crown” for the Virgin.
The central body is a great octagon with a hemispherical dome, surrounded by six chapels. The spiral scrolls, with statues, act as buttresses. Behind it, the presbytery with a lower dome and two bell towers. And it looks different from every side you view it from.
Inside, a luminous space centered on the octagon, with a floor of polychrome marble. The high altar by Giusto Le Court shows the Madonna and Child interceding for Venice, while the Plague is about to fall into the void. Here too is the Madonna della Salute, a Byzantine icon brought from Crete in 1670.
In the sacristy are many works by Titian, including St Mark Enthroned with Saints Cosmas, Damian, Sebastian and Roch, and Tintoretto's Wedding at Cana, from 1561.
It took more than fifty years: it was blessed only in 1687. Since then, every November 21 the Venetians cross the Grand Canal on a temporary bridge for the Festa della Salute.
The shape has a meaning. The eight, a symbol of salvation and hope, recalls the “Stella Maris”, the star of the sea that guides sailors to port. The dome recalls the Virgin's crown. On the left altar there is also a Descent of the Holy Spirit by Titian.
Don't miss
• The high altar.
• The sacristy.
• The Madonna della Salute.
• The outer scrolls.
Did you know?
• For the festival the Venetians eat “castradina”, a mutton dish.
• After the plague the Virgin was added to the patron saints of Venice.
• The octagon recalls an eight-pointed star, the “Stella Maris”.
Eighty thousand dead in the city, six hundred thousand in the whole state, the doge and the patriarch among them. The Venetians promised the Madonna a church if she saved them. The vow was made in October 1630.
The contagion had arrived with an ambassador of the Duke of Mantua. Shut up in the lazaretto, he only had to meet a carpenter to spread the disease, starting from Campo San Lio.
To make room for the church an old religious complex next to the Dogana was demolished, and to hold it up an enormous number of piles were driven into the ground. The competition was won by Baldassare Longhena, with a church “in the form of a crown” for the Virgin.
The central body is a great octagon with a hemispherical dome, surrounded by six chapels. The spiral scrolls, with statues, act as buttresses. Behind it, the presbytery with a lower dome and two bell towers. And it looks different from every side you view it from.
Inside, a luminous space centered on the octagon, with a floor of polychrome marble. The high altar by Giusto Le Court shows the Madonna and Child interceding for Venice, while the Plague is about to fall into the void. Here too is the Madonna della Salute, a Byzantine icon brought from Crete in 1670.
In the sacristy are many works by Titian, including St Mark Enthroned with Saints Cosmas, Damian, Sebastian and Roch, and Tintoretto's Wedding at Cana, from 1561.
It took more than fifty years: it was blessed only in 1687. Since then, every November 21 the Venetians cross the Grand Canal on a temporary bridge for the Festa della Salute.
The shape has a meaning. The eight, a symbol of salvation and hope, recalls the “Stella Maris”, the star of the sea that guides sailors to port. The dome recalls the Virgin's crown. On the left altar there is also a Descent of the Holy Spirit by Titian.
Don't miss
• The high altar.
• The sacristy.
• The Madonna della Salute.
• The outer scrolls.
Did you know?
• For the festival the Venetians eat “castradina”, a mutton dish.
• After the plague the Virgin was added to the patron saints of Venice.
• The octagon recalls an eight-pointed star, the “Stella Maris”.