Venice Water Taxi

Visit Venice

The Church of the Redeemer is located on Giudecca Island in the Dorsoduro Quarter. It was commissioned by the Venetian Senate and designed by Andrea Palladio and completed by Antonio da Ponte. It was constructed in 1576 to give thanks and commemorate the end of the plague. The church was designed to look like an ancient Roman temple with the façade resembling Rome's Pantheon. The façade is relatively free of intricate carvings and instead has a very geometrically shaped structure with three triangular pediments pointing up towards the church's dome. The church has a single nave topped with a huge dome positioned in the center of the church and on either side thin pointed campaniles or bell towers. Since the church's inauguration the Doge (Duke) has visited the church once a year for a thanksgiving mass. Today, although there is no longer a Doge of Venice, the tradition continues and on the third Sunday of July every year the Festival of the Redeemer is held. A pontoon bridge is constructed for the procession to reach the church where as in the past the Doge would approach the church on a floating bridge of boats.

The interior is white stucco and grey stone with a Corinthian order running around the interior and the main focus being on the altar. Within the spacious church are a number of outstanding works of art including paintings by Bastiani, Saraceni, Rocco Marconi, Paolo Veronese, Vivarini and Tintoretto. In the church sacristy are a number of wax heads made by the monks in 1710.