The
Basilica of St Mary of Health (), commonly known simply as the
Salute, is a
Roman Catholic church and
minor basilica located in the
Dorsoduro sestiere of the Italian city of
Venice. It stands on a narrow finger of land between the
Grand Canal and the
Bacino di San Marco making the church visible when entering the
Piazza San Marco from the water. The
Salute is part of the parish of the
Gesuati and is the most recent of the so-called
Plague-churches.
In 1630 Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the
plague. As a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, the
Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health (or of Deliverance, ). The church was designed in the then fashionable baroque style by
Baldassare Longhena, a pupil of the Venetian architect
Andrea Palladio, and construction began in 1631. Most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to the
Black Death.
The dome of the
Salute was an important addition to the Venice skyline and soon became emblematic of the city, inspiring artists like
Canaletto,
J. M. W. Turner,
John Singer Sargent and
Francesco Guardi.
History
Beginning in the summer of 1629, a
wave of the plague assaulted Venice, and over the next two years killed nearly a third of the population. In the city 46,000 people died whilst in the lagoons the number was far higher, some 94,000. Repeated displays of the sacrament, as well as prayers...
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