Starting in the Summer of 1629, a wave of the plague assaulted Venice, and over the next two years killed nearly a third of the population. Repeated displays of the sacrament, as well as prayers and processions to churches dedicated to San Rocco and San Lorenzo Giustiniani, had failed to stall the continuation of the epidemic. Echoing the architectural response to a prior assault of the plague (1575–76), when Palladio was asked to design the picturesque il Redentore dedicated to Christ the Redeemer, the Venetian Senate in October 22, 1630, decreed that a new church would be built. It was not to be dedicated to a mere "plague" or patron saint, but to the Virgin Mary, who for many reasons was thought to be a protector of the Republic.
It was also decided that the Senate would visit the church yearly, on 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, in a celebration known as the Festa della Madonna della Salute, where the city's officials parade from San Marco to the Salute in the sestieri Dorsoduro for a service in gratitude for deliverance from the plague. This involved crossing the Grand Canal on a specially constructed pontoon bridge and is still a major event in Venice.
The desire to create a suitable monument at a place that allows for an easy processional access from Piazza San Marco, led senators to select the present site from among 8 potential locations. The Salute, emblematic of the city's piety, stands adjacent to the rusticated single story customs house or Dogana da Mar, the emblem of its maritime commerce, and near the civic center of the city. A dispute with the patriarch, Rome's representative in Venice and owner of the church and seminary at the site, was overcome, and razing of some of the buildings began by 1631. Likely, the diplomat Sarpi and Doge Nicolo Contarini shared the intent to link church to an order less-associated with the Papacy, and ultimately the Somascan Fathers, an order founded near Bergamo by a Venetian noble, were chosen.
A competition was held to select the building. Of the eleven submission (including designs by Alessandro Varotari, Matteo Ignoli, and Berteo Belli), only two were chosen for the final round. The architect Baldassare Longhena was selected to design the new church. It was finally completed in 1681, the year before Longhena's death. The other competitive, but losing, design was by Antonio Smeraldi (il Fracao) and Zambattista Rubertini. Of the proposals still extant, Belli's and Smeraldi's original plans were a conventional counter-reformation linear churches, resembling Palladio's Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore; while Varotari's was a sketchy geometrical abstraction. Longhena's proposal was a concrete architectural plan, detailing the structure and costs, although also bold in design, he wrote:
"I have created a church in the form of a rotunda, a work of new invention, not built in Venice, a work very worthy and desired by many. This church, having the mystery of its dedication, being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, made me think, with what little talent God has bestowed upon me of building the church in the … shape of a crown."
Later in a memorandum, he wrote:
"Firstly, it is a virgin work, never before seen, curious, worthy and beautiful, made in the form of a round monument that has never been seen, nor ever before invented, neither altogether, nor in part, in other churches in this most serene city, just as my competitor (il Fracao) has done for his own advantage, being poor in invention"
Ultimately the Salute, while novel in many ways, still breathes the influence of Palladian classicism and the domes in Venice. The Venetian Senate voted 66 in favor, 29 against with 2 abstentions to authorize the designs of the 26 year old Longhena.
It was also decided that the Senate would visit the church yearly, on 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, in a celebration known as the Festa della Madonna della Salute, where the city's officials parade from San Marco to the Salute in the sestieri Dorsoduro for a service in gratitude for deliverance from the plague. This involved crossing the Grand Canal on a specially constructed pontoon bridge and is still a major event in Venice.
The desire to create a suitable monument at a place that allows for an easy processional access from Piazza San Marco, led senators to select the present site from among 8 potential locations. The Salute, emblematic of the city's piety, stands adjacent to the rusticated single story customs house or Dogana da Mar, the emblem of its maritime commerce, and near the civic center of the city. A dispute with the patriarch, Rome's representative in Venice and owner of the church and seminary at the site, was overcome, and razing of some of the buildings began by 1631. Likely, the diplomat Sarpi and Doge Nicolo Contarini shared the intent to link church to an order less-associated with the Papacy, and ultimately the Somascan Fathers, an order founded near Bergamo by a Venetian noble, were chosen.
A competition was held to select the building. Of the eleven submission (including designs by Alessandro Varotari, Matteo Ignoli, and Berteo Belli), only two were chosen for the final round. The architect Baldassare Longhena was selected to design the new church. It was finally completed in 1681, the year before Longhena's death. The other competitive, but losing, design was by Antonio Smeraldi (il Fracao) and Zambattista Rubertini. Of the proposals still extant, Belli's and Smeraldi's original plans were a conventional counter-reformation linear churches, resembling Palladio's Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore; while Varotari's was a sketchy geometrical abstraction. Longhena's proposal was a concrete architectural plan, detailing the structure and costs, although also bold in design, he wrote:
"I have created a church in the form of a rotunda, a work of new invention, not built in Venice, a work very worthy and desired by many. This church, having the mystery of its dedication, being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, made me think, with what little talent God has bestowed upon me of building the church in the … shape of a crown."
Later in a memorandum, he wrote:
"Firstly, it is a virgin work, never before seen, curious, worthy and beautiful, made in the form of a round monument that has never been seen, nor ever before invented, neither altogether, nor in part, in other churches in this most serene city, just as my competitor (il Fracao) has done for his own advantage, being poor in invention"
Ultimately the Salute, while novel in many ways, still breathes the influence of Palladian classicism and the domes in Venice. The Venetian Senate voted 66 in favor, 29 against with 2 abstentions to authorize the designs of the 26 year old Longhena.
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