Venice - Basilica Of Santa Maria della Salute by Arja Schrijver Photography

Photo of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. It was a day when showers and dry moments alternated. When I took the photo, a rain shower had just passed behind the basilica, the clouds gave the sky a special blue color. Just another blue than the turquoise of the Grand Canal in the foreground.

What I did not know at the time of the photo is that the present and past come together well. I took the photo during the corona pandemic and the basilica was created due to a major virus outbreak a few centuries earlier. From 1629 to 1631, a severe plague epidemic raged in northern Italy and part of central Italy. Venice was badly hit and a third of the population died.

In order to curb the epidemic, faith was initiated in 1630 and a procession of prayer of three days and three nights was organized in which the population took part. In addition, the Doge (the head of state of Venice) solemnly promised Santa Maria della Salute (Saint Mary of Health) that a great basilica would be built in her honor if the city survived the plague. A few weeks after the procession, the epidemic diminished sharply, and finally died out in November 1631.

The construction of the basilica started in 1631, which was finished in 1687. The Festa della Madonna della Salute is still celebrated every year on November 21, where a procession to the basilica takes place.