The Dorsoduro church known as the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute or in English - Basilica of St Mary of Health Salvation is not a very large church, but to the people of Venice, Italy it is an important one. The city of Venice is divided into six sestiens or subdivisions and Dorsodura is one of them.
The Santa Maria della Salute, usually just called La Salute is built on a narrow strip of land between St. Mark's Basin and the Grand Canal, the platform on which it was constructed has 100,000 piles.A deadly plague hit Venice, Italy in the summer of 1629 and raged for two years killing almost a third of the Venetian people. In spite of all the religious processions and prayers the plague still continued, so on October 22, 1630 the Senate of Venice decided a new church would be built dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Whether the plague just ran its course or it truly was a miracle - who knows? - but every year since then, on November 21st a service is held in gratitude for the end of the plague - The Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin - and it is a big event in Venice, Italy.
Santa Maria della Salute on Dorsoduro in Venice, Veneto, Italy, Europe.
I photographed this photo with the digital SLR camera model Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, aperture of f/6.3, exposure time of 1/80 sec. on ISO 100, as always I used a original Canon Lens, the focus lenght for this picture was 100mm.
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