Santa Maria della Salute

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute Basilica of Saint Mary of Health
Santa Maria della Salute at the Grand Canal
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45°25′51″N 12°20′04″E / 45.43083°N 12.33444°E / 45.43083; 12.33444
Location	Venice
Country	Italy
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Status	Active
Consecrated	1681
Architecture
Architect(s)	Baldassare Longhena
Architectural type	Church
Style	Baroque
Groundbreaking	1631
Completed	1687
Specifications
Length	70 metres (230 ft)
Width	47 metres (154 ft)
Materials	Istrian stone, marmorino
Administration
Province	Archdiocese of Venice

Santa Maria della Salute (English: Saint Mary of Health), commonly known simply as the Salute, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at the Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of Venice, Italy.

It stands on the narrow finger of Punta della Dogana, between the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, making the church visible when entering the Piazza San Marco from the water. The Salute is part of the parish of the Gesuati and is the most recent of the so-called plague churches.

In 1630, Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the plague. As a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the pestilence, the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health. The church was designed in the then fashionable Baroque style by Baldassare Longhena, who studied under the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Construction began in 1631. Most of the objects of art housed in the church bear references to the Black Death.

The dome of the Salute was an important addition to the Venice skyline and soon became emblematic of the city, appearing in artworks both by locals, such as Canaletto and Francesco Guardi, and visitors, such as J. M. W. Turner and John Singer Sargent.