This is the grandest church in the grandest location in all of Venice. An imposing presence in the city, and an architectural heavyweight both in style and tonnage. There are more than one-million piles keeping the massive church from sinking below the Grand Canal. It was built as a sacrifice to the Virgin Mary for delivering the city from the grips of the plague. Inside is an art gallery, and a sculpture by Giusto Le Corte showing the Madonna and Child giving Venice shelter from the plague. The man who headed up the effort was Baldassare Longhena. He started work in 1630 and continued until the day he died. Sadly, he never saw his completed work through corporal eyes. He died in 1682, five years before it was finished.

 

Photograph courtesy Philip Greenspun.

Photograph courtesy Philip Greenspun.