Editor Pick
Chiesa del SS. Redentore
A third of the population of Venice - around 50,000 people - died over 1575-76. To give thanks for the passing of the plague the Senate voted funds for the construction of a church to mark their redemption. Situated on the northern side of Giudecca, looking out towards Venice, that church came to be known as 'Il Redentore'. Every year since then during the Festa del Redentore a pontoon bridge from the Zattere on Dorsuduro has been built - originally to allow the Doge and senators to keep the city pox-free, now for the mayor to entertain the tourists. It is now celebrated on the third Sunday of July. This festival is featured in a scene of the novel 'Eustace and Hilda' by L.P.Hartley, where the jaded English tourists sail out into the canal at night to picnic and watch the fireworks. At midnight, to their astonishment, chains of fire pick out the image of a bloody weeping Christ superimposed over the face of the church as the climax to the celebrations.
The architect chosen to design the church was the neo-classicist Andrea Palladio, who had left such a lasting mark on Vicenza. The class system was writ large in his brief - to divide the church into three distinct sections. There was to be a choir for the Franciscan monks, a tribune around the altar for the great and the good (not necessarily the same thing!), and a nave, for the plebs. Palldio got round this by the use of curving screens breaking up the sightlines but still leaving the altar as the focal point of the church.
Later decoration was provided by a number of artworks. Bassano was clearly very big on nativities, his trademark being a supernaturally-glowing Christ child.
The church is €2, or free with a Chorus Pass (which costs €8 and allows access to other churches such as the Frari, the Miracoli, San Polo anf the Gesuati). It is open from 10am to 5pm, apart from Sundays, when it only opens at one.
From journal We Open In Venice...