Salute Feast - Dorsoduro Venice
(Photo: La Chiesa della Salute - Bernardo Bellotto)
Notizie Salute 2022
- 18 November at 12.00: blessing and opening of the votive bridge with the patriarch Francesco Moraglia, the mayor Brugnaro and the civil and military authorities.
– from Saturday 19 to Monday 21 there will be the Health Fair: the market will have 30 stalls which will be located in Campo della Salute and Campo San Gregorio offering religious items for sale. While in Rio Terà dei Catecumeni and Rio Terà dei Saloni the stalls will offer pancakes, candied fruit, various types of sweets and balloons for children for sale.
– Sunday 20 November at 19.00: there will be a pilgrimage of young people from Campo San Maurizio.
– Monday 21 November the Basilica della Salute will be open from 5.45 to 22.30.
The Salute Feast is celebrated in November to commemorate the end of the plague in 1631, through the intercession of the Virgin invoked by the Doge a year before.
It is tradition for citizens to cross the Votive Bridge, built specifically every year on the Grand Canal, to climb the steps of the Basilica della Salute and enter the Baroque masterpiece of Longhena to light a candle and to honor the Virgin with her own vow.
Although the religious aspect is dominant in this festival, over the years many initiatives have arisen and above all the playful aspect of the event has developed: numerous candy stands and colorful balloons in fact rejoice the day of Health making it a memorable event also and especially for younger visitors.
Religious celebrations of the Festa della Salute
- from 6.00 to 8pm celebrations of Ss. Masses every hour
- 10.00 am Solemn Mass officiated by the Patriarch of Venice
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4.45 pm Musical tribute to the Madonna
- 10.00 pm Celebration of the Compline (evening prayer)
How to get to the Festa della Salute
The feast is experienced by the whole city and by tourists who come to the Chiesa della Salute through the Votive Bridge. You can get there from Piazzale Roma with a 20-minute walk or with the following vaporettos:
- Line 1 Piazzale Roma or Railway Station with Salute Stop or with Giglio stop and then making the votive bridge towards the Basilica della Salute.
History of Salute Feast
In the sixteenth-century Venice, that tried to find a new position on the international chessboard after the discovery of America and the opening of new commercial routes that saw it excluded, tested for the temperament of the wars that had seen as opponents the Papacy, France and 'Empire, a terrible plague struck the population in 1575-77 by reaping tens of thousands of victims.
Only 54 years after the pestilent event came again on a population still exhausted inducing innumerable superstitions and despair in the people so much to induce the Doge of Venice to resort to the divine: October 22, 1630 Nicol� Contarini pronounced public vote for the erection of a cult building to be named after the Salute, asking for the intercession of the Virgin for the end of the plague. The work began immediately and ended in 1687 with an epidemic now averted, but at the price of a massacre of sadly memorable citizenship: one of four Venetian died.
 However, a celebration was held to commemorate a sad event that requires all citizens to remember and come to a halt within the Salute factory on one of the most memorable days of celebration in Venice. Passing on the votive bridge, built specifically every year on the Grand Canal, a crowd of citizens reach the other bank where the Baroque masterpiece of Longhena stands to light a candle and honor the Virgin with her own vow.
Alongside the religious aspect that is dominant in this festival, numerous initiatives have sprung up and above all the playful aspect of the event has developed: numerous candy stands and colored balloons cheer the day of the Salute making it a memorable event also and especially for younger visitors. |
