Churches

The Basilica of St Mary of Health (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute), commonly known simply as the Salute, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the Italian city of Venice. It stands on a narrow finger of land between the Grand Canal and 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 (or of Deliverance, Italian: Salute). The church was designed in the then fashionable baroque style by Baldassare Longhena, a pupil of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, and 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, inspiring artists like Canaletto, J. M. W. Turner, John Singer Sargent and Francesco Guardi.

Santa Maria degli Scalzi was built in the 17th century by the Roman community of the Barefoot Carmelites under the direction of Baldassare Longhena.
The church can be found at the foot of the Scalzi Bridge looking out over the Grand Canal close to Venice’s railway station.

The façade, by Giuseppe Sardi is the only one in Venice made of Carrara marble. Its design and decoration are both splendid examples of Baroque art in the Roman style.
The second chapel on the right and the first on the left both have frescoes by G.B. Tiepolo.