The wonderful church in front of you, Santa Maria della Salute, is the brilliant masterpiece of Baldassarre Longhena, the most imaginative and tireless architect of the 1600s! His specialty was scenographically inserting his monuments into the surrounding environment, and many of his projects were so grandiose that they were never finished! The Salute church, however, is one of the most complete. And he didn't just limit himself to the church here: he also designed the stairs, churchyard, main altar, and floor mosaic decoration!
The Salute church began as the city's votive offering for the end of the plague in 1630: to give you an idea of how frightening it was, the population of Venice has never returned to the levels it had before the plague. Work on the church began a year after the end of the plague, but it took fifty years to complete it. The large hemispherical dome was meant to be a kind of crown in honor of Our Lady, whose statue stands directly on top. Each of the façades looks like a triumphal arch and is full of statues.
Now pause the audio guide and go inside.
Look how effective this interior is, all in one piece. It's all here: six chapels on the sides and a corridor going all around. This is a bright and serene church that is very loved by Baroque and Renaissance art lovers. If you want to see a late masterpiece by Titian, go straight to the third altar on the left, and in the meantime enjoy the spectacular marble composition that decorates the main altar, also designed by Longhena.
Did you like Titian's majestic Pentecost?
Now pause the audio again and go into the sacristy.
Here in the sacristy I'll show you a Last Supper by Tintoretto, and above all a fantastic "compilation" by Titian, with works from various periods! The St. Mark on the Throne is one of Titian's first public works, where he immediately shows his originality by shadowing the head of the main figure! He instead painted the three spectacular episodes of the Bible that you see on the ceiling more than thirty years later. Of course, the vertiginous perspectives are explained by the fact that the panels had to be observed from below.
FUN FACT: do you know how many poles the architect Longhena had planted to support the entire Salute complex and consolidate the ground? more than a million! Just imagine the amount of organization that took!
