Santa Maria della Salute in Venice: a votive church and the Black Death

This is a short summary of one of the articles from Webzine SILKROADIA VOL.2 NO.1. For more specialized information, please download our Webzine, and read "Santa Maria della Salute in Venice: a votive church and the Black Death" written by Martina Frank, a professor at the Department of Philosophy and Beni Culture in Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy.

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute acts as an important landmark in the urban space of Venice and its large, unmistakable domed mass dominates the entrance to the Grand Canal just after St. Mark's. The history of the baroque style building is a reminder of the epidemics that repeatedly struck the city. In comparison to other cities, Venice was well prepared with regards to plagues. By 1423, the Senate of the Venetian Republic established a hospital – the first in the world – for the treatment of plague-infected people, on an island in the lagoon. Some fifty years later, the nearby island Lazzaretto Nuovo (New Lazaret) was equipped as place of quarantine for sailors suspected to be infected, arriving from various Mediterranean ports.

On October 26, 1630 in the midst of the bubonic plague, that caused the death of a third of the population, Doge Nicolò Contarini made a vow to construct a church to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In that difficult situation, the Republic decided to have recourse to Mary's help, because the legend of the foundation of Venice tells that the mythical birth of the city took place by divine will on the feast of the Annunciation to Mary in the year 421.

© 2020 Martina Frank All Rights Reserved.