The Chiesa del Redentore on the island of Giudecca, was built between 1577 and 1592 as thanksgiving for the end of the plague 1576, during which most of the population of Venice perished.
Each year, as a sign of gratitude, the Doge and all his court would visit the church, crossing the waters on a bridge of boats. Of great historical value is the painting by Italico Brass, the Ponte del Redentor (1909), hanging in the International Gallery of Modern Art in Ca’ Pesaro.
The Festa del Redentore is still celebrated each July by the Venetians.

Andrea Palladio, the most important Venetian architect of the time, was responsible for the design of the church, together with the architect Da Ponte, the designer of the Ponte di Rialto. An ecclesiastical commission expressly asked Palladio to embrace the decisions of the last Concilium to build a long basilica like that of San Giorgio Maggiore Palladio’s Chiesa del Redentore is a masterpiece of harmony and proportion: with its dazzling white exterior, it stands out against the simple low buildings around it.

The interior is classical in style, where all the elements are perfectly balanced, thus satisfying the rules of Palladian architecture.
The church contains some fine paintings by Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto, but the most striking work of art is the painting of the Madonna con Bambino e due angeli musicanti (c. 1500) by Alvise Vivarini.

1500 - Is. GIUDECCA - rev. 0.1.5