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The Story
In 1630-31 Venice was devastated by a plague that exterminated
95.000 of the lagoon's population. In October 1630 the Senate
decreed that a new church would be dedicated to Mary if the city
were saved and the result was the Salute church
(salute="salvation, health").
The architect Baldassare Longhena was only 26 years old when he
accepted to work for the church build and he died in 1682, one
year after completion
The Madona della Salute is build on a platform of more than
100.000 wooden piles and the church took half a century to build.
The painting and the service of thanksgiving
A few decades after the church was finished Francesco Morosini
brought from Candia the painting of a Madonna dating from 1200
which, by decree of the Senate on 21 November 1670, was set on the
high altar. The Signoria processed from San Marco to the Salute,
crossing the Canal Grande on a pontoon bridge laid from Santa
Maria del Giglio.
From that 21 November the Madonna was known as the Madonna della
Salute (Our Lady of Good Health). Since then the votive visit to
the church is held annually on this date.
Next to the church in the square in front and street vendors
prospered by selling pevarini, zaleti, bussolai and above all the
candles to take into the church during the traditional visit of
devotion and thanksgiving.
Another old tradition is to eat, during these days, a "castradina",
a soup made of dried salted mutton, cooked several times with
cabbage leaves.
The church
The form of the Salute, the octagonal plan and eight facades
allude to the eight pointed Marian star.
The inscription in the centre of the mosaic floor, "Unde Origo
Inde Salus" (From the Origins came Salvation), refers to the
coincidence of Mary's feast day and the legendary date of Venice's
foundation - March 25, 421.
The most important paintings are the Titian pieces (displayed in
the sacristy) brought from the suppressed church of Santo Spirito
in 1656. |
