• In 1630, as a votive offering for the city’s deliverance from the pestilence, the government of the Serenissima Republic of Venice decided to build a church dedicated to Our Lady of Health.
The project was entrusted to the architect Baldassarre Longhena, the construction took almost sixty years and the imposing Basilica was completed in 1687.
Since then the Basilica of St. Mary of Health (generally named “Salute” by Venetians) stands as a guard at the entrance of the Grand Canal.
