Madonna della Salute day
Every year, on November 21, Venetians built a temporary bridge of boats that cross the Grand Canal, connecting San
Moisé and Santa Maria del Giglio, for the health's day procession, in Madonna honour. Thousands of people cross the votive bridge
and visit the main altar of the
imposing Salute Church to give thanks and ask the Virgin
Mary to intercede for their health.
In 1630, over 50 years after the terrible plague of 1575-77, the pestilence
gripped the city once again.
The plague was killing the whole population.
Doge Nicolò Contarini decided to ask a divine help and made a public vow to erect a church called the Salute, asking for the Virgin Mary’s divine intercession to stop the plague.
Eleven architects took part in the competition: between them was Baldassarre Longhena, who won with a project that perfectly captured the grandiosity and magnificence asked by the Doge: a church that exalted the Holy Virgin and the Serenissima at the same time.
Since the end of the plague, in 1631, a strong symbolic tie remained between the city and the Virgin Mary.
On this festivity Venetians use to eat the castradina, a mutton-based traditional dish.
The plague was killing the whole population.
Doge Nicolò Contarini decided to ask a divine help and made a public vow to erect a church called the Salute, asking for the Virgin Mary’s divine intercession to stop the plague.
Eleven architects took part in the competition: between them was Baldassarre Longhena, who won with a project that perfectly captured the grandiosity and magnificence asked by the Doge: a church that exalted the Holy Virgin and the Serenissima at the same time.
Since the end of the plague, in 1631, a strong symbolic tie remained between the city and the Virgin Mary.
On this festivity Venetians use to eat the castradina, a mutton-based traditional dish.
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Picasso at Palazzo Grassi
Oct-11-2006
The 11th of november at Palazzo Grassi
was presented the most important event of the season: the exposition "Picasso, La joie de vivre 1945-1948".
Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
The very example of Venetian Baroque Architecture, by
Baldassarre Longhena (1631-81), dedicated to the Virgin Mary
in thanksgiving for the end of the
plague that had killed about a third of Venice's population in 1630.
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