Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore

The Church of the Santissimo Redentore stands on Giudecca as a votive monument commissioned by the Venetian Senate during the plague of 1575–1577. Designed by Andrea Palladio, it faces across the canal toward Venice and remains closely associated with the city’s annual Feast of the Redentore.

Why it matters

The Senate commissioned the church as a vow in response to the plague. Its foundation mass was celebrated on 21 July 1577, with music by Giosefo Zarlino and an eight-voice motet, “O Crux splendidior,” by Andrea Gabrieli. The church embodies the Venetian Republic’s collective religious response to catastrophe, joining civic ritual with Palladio’s architecture. The building campaign extended from 1577 into the early 1590s.

What to notice

The façade combines broken pediments and half-columns in a composition joined by a horizontal band. Inside, whitewashed walls and a sequence of linked spaces lead from the nave through the presbytery to the choir; the plan is not a conventional Latin cross. Paintings in the church include works by Veronese and his assistants, Jacopo Tintoretto, Francesco Bassano, Paolo Piazza and Palma il Giovane. The sacristy preserves Veronese’s Baptism of Christ of 1560, a panel by Alvise Vivarini and works by Palma il Giovane, Jacopo Bassano and Francesco Bissolo.

Context and history

Palladio died in 1580 before the church was complete. Construction continued under foreman Antonio da Ponte, following Palladio’s designs. The dedication to Christ the Redeemer became the focus of an annual state festival. The church’s solemn interior and controlled light reflect its origins as a place of thanksgiving after the plague, rather than as a parish church shaped by successive layers of decoration.