Santa Maria della Salute
On 22 October 1630, with the plague still killing Venetians, the Senate voted to build a Baroque church as a public vow to the Virgin Mary — and the dome that resulted redrew the city's skyline.
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Baldassare Longhena's design fulfilled a promise made after 46,000 city residents died in a single outbreak. Positioned where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, it became the reference point for painters from Canaletto and Francesco Guardi to J.M.W. Turner and John Singer Sargent. Most of the art inside bears references to the Black Death.
What to look for
- The dome at the tip of Punta della Dogana — visible the moment you enter the Bacino di San Marco from the water
- Interior artworks: the source states most objects housed here bear direct references to the Black Death
- Baroque detail by Longhena, who trained under architect Vincenzo Scamozzi
Take the vaporetto to the Salute stop in Dorsoduro; the church sits at the very tip of Punta della Dogana and is the most recent of Venice's plague churches.
Santa Maria della Salute is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Venice, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Venice pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Venice
- St Mark's BasilicaThe Doge's private chapel turned war-trophy hall — every marble slab and bronze horse was taken from somewhere else.
- Doge's PalaceGovernment offices, a jail, and the Doge's private rooms — all under one Venetian Gothic roof on the lagoon edge.
- Grand CanalVenice's main street is water — a 3.8 km reverse-S where noble families spent fortunes trying to outshine each other in stone and marble.
- Piazza San MarcoNapoleon called it "the drawing room of Europe" — then stripped it of its four horses and shipped them to Paris.
- Rialto BridgePredicted to collapse before it opened, this single-span stone arch has carried Venice's Grand Canal traffic since 1591.
- Bridge of SighsLord Byron named it in the 19th century — condemned men crossing in 1600 took their last look at Venice through stone-barred windows before the cells closed behind them.