The Redentore Feast - City of Venice
(Photo:
The Church of Redentore and the votive bridge - Antonio Canal detto
il Canaletto)
News
As usual, this year the Cultural Association Musica Venezia, Roberta Reeder Artistic Director, will present an evening of sacred music at the church of the Redeemer. Performed by the Ensemble Musica Venezia, the concert will take place on Friday 14 July at 8.30 pm, free admission.
Event on 3rd sunday of July: 15 and 16 of July 2024 (saturday the fireworks)
The Feast of the Redentore is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of July (the show of fireworks is the previous Saturday, and it is not said that it is the third of the month).
The Feast of the Redeemer is celebrated in Venice from July 20, 1577, when a first bridge of boats was set up to make citizens reach the place where the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer was being built; not just any Christian temple but what the doge Alvise Mocenigo vowed to erect to free from the scourge of the most terrible plague that Venice knew in its history and that, between 1575 and 1577, killed more than 50 thousand citizens, including the successor of Alvise, the doge Sebastiano Venier.
Nowadays, the Feast of the Redeemer is certainly the most important moment for the city of Venice and its inhabitants, who gather on the Giudecca shore in the morning to find a place in the tables that are traditionally arranged for outdoor dining.
But for those who own a boat, the Feast of the Redeemer is an indispensable ritual; it is a sacred day for every Venetian doc, a day when you can not be out of town for any reason. The boats are festively decorated with lights and lamps of all sorts, while festoons of all kinds adorn the stern hulls at the bow crowning a scenario where the real party is consumed: music and dancing throughout the day until late at night, Venetian dishes served on the table amidships for a trip that starts for many already in the morning, touching the favorite places of the Venice lagoon. Final event in the evening for everyone in the San Marco Basin or in front of Giudecca.
For all the thousands of unfortunates who do not own a boat, friends with a boat, or do not want to spend incredible amounts to mount on a boat, there is the possibility to see the fireworks from the banks choosing one of the many places from which they are visible.
Without a doubt - after 20 years of the Feast of the Redeemer celebrated on the ground - I venture to say that the best place is the Giudecca Island, which is then the most devoted place to the religious feast.
 The Giudecca island is connected to Venice by a bridge of floating platforms (in principle the bridge was made up of 80 galleys) that can be walked until 10.30 in the evening. The bridge symbolically ends in front of the facade of the Church of the Redeemer. Towards evening, the San Marco basin is stormed by all types of boats decorated with lights and festoons.
On board we serve the traditional dishes of the festival: pasta and beans, sardines in saor, wine in profusion, dances and music until the culmination of the festival: the pyrotechnical explosion of fireworks.
The scenario as seen also in the photos shown on the side is superb: Venice dresses up to celebrate itself through a ritual that is always the same from 21 July 1578.
At the end of the "fires" all the boats travel in spontaneous parade the Canal Grande or reach the Lido to wait for the sunrise on the beach as tradition dictates.
How to get to the Festa del Redentore
The party is experienced by the whole city and by tourists who come to the San Marco Basin in the evening. But the best place to see the fireworks according to everyone, and always the vital fulcrum of the Feast of the Redeemer, is the Isola della Giudecca. You can get there from Piazzale Roma with a 20-minute walk or with the following vaporettos:
– Line 6 Piazzale Roma with Zattere stop. From here continue on foot up to the votive bridge that leads to Giudecca.
–v Line 2 Piazzale Roma or Railway Station with Giudecca stop Palanca.
Typical dishes of the Festa del Redentore in Venice
The celebrations of the Redeemer are always accompanied by the traditional dishes typical of the Feast of the Redeemer which are the following:
– pasta e fasioi
– bovoleti
– sarde in saor
– anara col pien
– castradina
The menu is always accompanied by plenty of wine.
Feast of the Redentore Program
Saturday:
– 7.30 pm: opening of the Votive Bridge
–10.30 am: closing of the Votive Bridge
–11.30 am: Fireworks
–12.30 pm: Reopening of the Votive Bridge
Sunday:
–4.00 pm: Start of the regattas
– 7.00 pm: solemn Mass celebrated by the Patriarch of Venice at the Church of the Redentore at the Giudecca
Religious celebrations. Feast of the Redentore
– Blessing of the Patriarch of Venice on the steps of the Church of the Redentore for the opening of the bridge
– Procession to the Redentore
– Mass at 19.30 at the Church of the Redentore
– Mass at 0.30 at the Church of the Redentore
– Eight Masses on Sunday that culminate in the Solemn Mass of 19.00
The Redentore's regattas
They take place along the Giudecca Canal on Sunday afternoons and they present all the samples of the oar present in the lagoon being a classic of the competitive calendar of the Venetian rowing:
– 4.00 pm: Youth regatta on 2-row pupparini
– 4.45 pm: Regatta men on 2-row pupparini
– 5.30 pm: Regatta men on 2-oared gondolas
History
The Feast of the Redentore was born in the sixteenth century as a celebration of the end of a devastating pestilence that decimated the population of all Europe. Venice was not immune to the contagion and counted more than 50,000 victims among the population so that the doge Alvise Mocenigo vowed to erect a temple in thanksgiving to the Redeemer, a vow that was subsequently dissolved by his successor, the doge Sebastiano Venier, who competition for the construction of the temple that was won by the famous architect Palladio.
 The first stone was laid on May 3, 1577, the day of the inventione of the Holy Cross of our Redeemer, thus starting a Christological program that would have undergone all the choices inherent to the church, including the imposition of austerity chosen by the Capuchins to whom Andrea Palladio answered perfectly.
The church dominates the Giudecca landscape and is a reflection of Palladio on all the existing Renaissance architecture, the attempt to reconcile the Christian church with all the elements of the classical temple (for more information on the construction visit the Church of the Redeemer page).
The next day is the moment of religious celebrations in the church of the Redeemer and of the rowing competitions that always accompany this day.La Festa del "Redentore" nasce nel XVI secolo come celebrazione della fine
di una devastante pestilenza che decim� la popolazione di tutta Europa.
Venezia non fu immune al contagio e cont� pi� di 50.000 vittime
tra la popolazione cos� che il doge Alvise Mocenigo fece voto di erigere
un tempio in ringraziamento al Redentore, voto che fu successivamente sciolto
dal suo successore, il doge Sebastiano Venier, il quale indisse un concorso
per la costruzione del tempio che fu vinto dal famoso architetto Palladio.
La prima pietra fu posta il 3 maggio 1577, giorno dell'inventione della
Santissima Croce del Redentore nostro, avviando cos� un programma cristologico
che avrebbe sotteso tutte le scelte inerenti alla chiesa, inclusa l'imposizione
di austerit� scelta dai cappuccini a cui il progetto di Andrea Palladio
rispondeva perfettamente.
La chiesa domina il panorama della Giudecca e risulta essere una riflessione
di Palladio su tutta l'esistente architettura rinascimentale, il tentativo
di conciliare la chiesa cristiana con tutti gli elementi del tempio classico
(per maggiori informazioni sulla costruzione visitate la pagina Chiesa
del Redentore).
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