The Basilica of St Mary of Health

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.

Beginning in the summer of 1629, a wave of the plague assaulted Venice, and over the next two years killed nearly a third of the population. In the city 46,000 people died whilst in the lagoons the number was far higher, some 94,000. Repeated displays of the sacrament, as well as prayers and processions to churches dedicated to San Rocco and San Lorenzo Giustiniani had failed to stem the epidemic. Echoing the architectural response to a prior assault of the plague (1575–76), when Palladio was asked to design the Redentore church, the Venetian Senate on October 22, 1630, decreed that a new church would be built. It was not to be dedicated to a mere "plague" or patron saint, but to the Virgin Mary, who for many reasons was thought to be a protector of the Republic.

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, who studied under the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. 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 del Rosario (Gesuati)

Santa Maria del Rosario (English: St Mary of the Rosary), commonly known as I Gesuati, is an 18th century Dominican church in the Sestiere of Dorsoduro, on the Giudecca canal in Venice, northern Italy.

It is a well-lighted building in classical style with Rococo decoration and is exceptional in preserving its original form and decoration intact. The architecture and almost all the sculpture and paintings were created within the same thirty year period in the first half of the 18th century.

The building was started in 1725; the church was consecrated in 1743, and the last statue was in place by 1755. Work started in 1725, while the Dominicans energetically sought to raise sufficient funds, both from charitable contributions and from religious institutions and benefaxctions. The funding was organised by a Father from Milan, Carlo Maria Lazzaroni, who was successful in raising a very large sum. This enabled them not only to build a magnificent church, but to embellish it with the work of the most famous painters and sculptors of the day. The first stone was laid on 17 May 1726, in the presence of the Patriarch, Marco Gradenigo. The church was consecrated on 29 September 1743, by the then Patriarch, Alvise Foscari. The work was finished (with the completion of the last statue) in 1755 and appears today much as it did then.

A religious Order, which was founded in Siena in the 14th century, had a presence in Venice by 1390. Its members were known as I poveri Gesuati (the poor Jesuates) because of their frequent calling on the name of Jesus. (They had no connection with the Jesuits (I Gesuiti), whose church is in the north of Venice. They acquired some wealth from donations and legacies and from privileges granted by the state, including a monopoly on the distillation of wine. In 1493 they commenced the building of a small church on land fronting the Zattere (the fondamenta which borders the Giudecca Canal facing the Giudecca island), where the other buildings of the Order stood. This church was originally dedicated to St Jerome (San Girolamo) and later to Sta Maria della Visitazione and became known as the church of the Visitation. Later the Order found it hard to recruit new members and a falling off in numbers combined with slackness in the performance of their duties led to its suppression by Pope Clement IX in 1668. In 1669 their property was put up for auction and acquired by the Dominicans, who installed themselves there in 1670. It became known as the Dominicans' place at the Gesuati and the Venetians have to this day continued to use the name.