Rising at the entrance to the Grand Canal, the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute is one of the defining monuments of Venice. Its great dome dominates the view from the Bacino di San Marco, while its marble mass marks the tip of Dorsoduro beside Punta della Dogana. Commonly called La Salute, the church stands between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, directly across the water from Piazza San Marco. From the square, La Salute appears as a theatrical counterpoint to the Doge’s Palace, San Giorgio Maggiore and the long waterfront of the city. The church was built as an ex voto after the plague of 1630-1631, when Venice suffered one of the most destructive epidemics in its history. The Republic promised a sanctuary to the Virgin Mary, under the title of Santa Maria della Salute, meaning Saint Mary of Health or Salvation. Designed by Baldassare Longhena, the church combines religious symbolism, difficult lagoon engineering and Venetian Baroque architecture. The building is not a longitudinal church with a traditional nave. Its main space is centralized, octagonal and luminous, organized around a massive dome and a sequence of Marian altars. Inside, visitors find works by Titian, Luca Giordano, Tintoretto, Pietro Read more [...]