Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA
See
Click here
.
GALLERY
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION
See
Click here
.
MUSEUM
BASILICA DI SANTA MARIA DELLA SALUTE
MAP
CHURCH
GOOGLE MAP
(La Salute; 041 241 10 18;
www.seminariovenezia.it
; Campo della Salute 1b; admission free, sacristy adult/reduced
€3/1.50; 9am-noon & 3-5.30pm; Salute)
A monumental sigh of relief, this splendid domed
church was commissioned by Venice's plague survivors as thanks for salvation. Baldassare
Longhena's uplifting design is an engineering feat that defies simple logic, and in fact the
church is said to have mystical curative properties. Titian eluded the plague until age 94,
leaving a legacy of masterpieces now in Salute's sacristy.
Longhena's marvel makes good on an official appeal by the Venetian Senate directly to
the Madonna in 1630, after 80,000 Venetians had been killed by plague brought in by a car-
penter working on Venice's quarantine island, the Lazzaretto Vecchio. The Senate promised
the Madonna a church in exchange for her intervention on behalf of Venice - no expense or
effort spared. Before 'La Salute' could even be started, at least 100,000 pylons had to be
driven deep into the
barene
(mud banks) to shore up the tip of Dorsoduro.
The Madonna provided essential inspiration, but La Salute draws its structural strength
from a range of architectural and spiritual traditions. Architectural scholars note striking
similarities between Longhena's unusual domed octagon structure and both Greco-Roman
goddess temples and Jewish cabbala diagrams. The lines of the building ingeniously con-
verge beneath the dome to form a vortex on the inlaid marble floors, and the black dot at
the centre is said to radiate healing energy.
The newly restored sacristy is a wonder within a wonder, featuring 12 key works by Ti-
tian - including a vivid self-portrait in the guise of St Matthew and his earliest known work
from 1510,
Saint Mark on the Throne
. Salute's most charming allegory for Venice's mira-
culous survival from plague is Palma Il Giovane's painting of Jonah emerging from the
mouth of the whale, where the survivor stomps down the sea creature's tongue like an ac-
tion hero walking the red carpet. Life in a time of plague is a miracle worth celebrating in
Tintoretto's upbeat 1561
Wedding Feast of Cana,
featuring a Venetian throng of multi-culti
