Enhance your holiday travel experience by downloading this audio tour of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy.
Great Discoveries audio tour provides today's tourist with the best way to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, the most brilliant architectural jewel in the Venetian crown and a soaring baroque structure unlike any other. Her silhouette dominates the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and she lifts her gleaming drum of white Istrian stone high above the city's tiled rooftops. She sits at the entrance to Venice like some great lady on the threshold of her salon with her domes, scrolls, scalloped buttresses and statues forming a pompous crown. Her wide steps are placed on the ground like the train of a magnificent robe.
Throughout history, great plagues, wars, and disease have stimulated great art and architecture. La Salute is a case in point. In 1630, a plague had struck Venice taking some 45,000 people, over a quarter of its citizens, to early graves. In the midst of this horror, the Venetian Senate made a pact with God, 'Stop the plague and we will build a church to honor the Virgin Mary. The pact worked, the plague came to a sudden end, most likely due to cooler weather, and the Senate set about honoring their promise to God by building the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute or the Basilica of St. Mary of Good Health.
Eleven architects presented designs and the project was awarded to an unknown 26 year-old Baldassare Longhena. The great architect's grand design caused much criticism and envy amongst his competitors. But Longhena was fully convinced of the worth of his plan and he described his design as, "strange, worthy, and beautiful...in the shape of a round machine such as had never been seen, or invented either in its whole or in part from any other church in the city." His invention, though never seen before, is beautiful in its concept.
A supreme feeling of peace and serenity permeates Longhena's well-lit interior. Eight majestic pillars support its octagonal shaped cupola in the typical Baroque spirit which aims to impress and amaze. Its majesty recalls the large spaces of the Roman basilicas of the late Classical period. Its six side chapels and main altar, themselves majestic works of art, are packed full of spectacular statues and paintings.
La Salute contains masterpieces and great works aplenty including two of Titian's greatest paintings, "the Pentecost and 'St. Mark Enthroned with Other Saints. The large Sacristy contains an additional wealth of unforgettable Titian paintings as well as the work of other artists. Outstanding among these is one of Tintoretto's most famous paintings, the 'Wedding at Cana.
This carefully researched tour guides you through the basilica while our professional narrator, accompanied by historically appropriate background music, points out and describes la Salute's most significant works of art and other historic treasures. Shatter your idea of history, throw down your guidebook and venture off to see and hear the stories behind this resplendent church, its great architect and the Venetian Renaissance artists who created this magnificent wonder.
Guides are recorded in easy to follow segments that are readily located on your iPod. This 1 hour and 28 minute, 37 track, audio tour is designed to work with an easy to read building diagram, with clearly numbered locations, which coordinate with the track numbers and descriptions displayed on your iPod.
Author / Spoken By Stephen Soncini / Christopher Kent
Italy audio travel guide. The Ca' d'Oro is one of the most striking examples of the uniqueness of Venetian architecture. It is one of the older palaces on the Grand Canal... MORE >>
Italy audio travel guide. One of the few palaces in Venice permitting public insight into what lies behind the ornamental but often secretive facades... MORE >>
Italy audio travel guide. The Scuola is a unique museum that is so impressive that its works of art, set off by gold gild trim, inspire one to just sit... MORE >>
Italy audio travel guide. Throughout the centuries, countless numbers of pilgrims and tourists alike have been awestruck by the golden magnificence..... MORE >>
Enhance your holiday travel experience by downloading this audio tour of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy.
Great Discoveries audio tour provides today's tourist with the best way to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, the most brilliant architectural jewel in the Venetian crown and a soaring baroque structure unlike any other. Her silhouette dominates the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and she lifts her gleaming drum of white Istrian stone high above the city's tiled rooftops. She sits at the entrance to Venice like some great lady on the threshold of her salon with her domes, scrolls, scalloped buttresses and statues forming a pompous crown. Her wide steps are placed on the ground like the train of a magnificent robe.
Throughout history, great plagues, wars, and disease have stimulated great art and architecture. La Salute is a case in point. In 1630, a plague had struck Venice taking some 45,000 people, over a quarter of its citizens, to early graves. In the midst of this horror, the Venetian Senate made a pact with God, 'Stop the plague and we will build a church to honor the Virgin Mary. The pact worked, the plague came to a sudden end, most likely due to cooler weather, and the Senate set about honoring their promise to God by building the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute or the Basilica of St. Mary of Good Health.
Eleven architects presented designs and the project was awarded to an unknown 26 year-old Baldassare Longhena. The great architect's grand design caused much criticism and envy amongst his competitors. But Longhena was fully convinced of the worth of his plan and he described his design as, "strange, worthy, and beautiful...in the shape of a round machine such as had never been seen, or invented either in its whole or in part from any other church in the city." His invention, though never seen before, is beautiful in its concept.
A supreme feeling of peace and serenity permeates Longhena's well-lit interior. Eight majestic pillars support its octagonal shaped cupola in the typical Baroque spirit which aims to impress and amaze. Its majesty recalls the large spaces of the Roman basilicas of the late Classical period. Its six side chapels and main altar, themselves majestic works of art, are packed full of spectacular statues and paintings.
La Salute contains masterpieces and great works aplenty including two of Titian's greatest paintings, "the Pentecost and 'St. Mark Enthroned with Other Saints. The large Sacristy contains an additional wealth of unforgettable Titian paintings as well as the work of other artists. Outstanding among these is one of Tintoretto's most famous paintings, the 'Wedding at Cana.
This carefully researched tour guides you through the basilica while our professional narrator, accompanied by historically appropriate background music, points out and describes la Salute's most significant works of art and other historic treasures. Shatter your idea of history, throw down your guidebook and venture off to see and hear the stories behind this resplendent church, its great architect and the Venetian Renaissance artists who created this magnificent wonder.
Guides are recorded in easy to follow segments that are readily located on your iPod. This 1 hour and 28 minute, 37 track, audio tour is designed to work with an easy to read building diagram, with clearly numbered locations, which coordinate with the track numbers and descriptions displayed on your iPod.
Author / Spoken By Stephen Soncini / Christopher Kent
Click to see more from this Presenter
GDI-220232-TRV-IT-016
Zone:
Country:
City / Locale:
Go
If our Load Dingo stays on-screen for more than 10 seconds you probably have Javascript disabled.
To understand why our site requires Javascript and learn how to enable it please check this FAQ
Try a Sample
Tell a Friend
Give as a Gift
Shopping Cart
Home
My Account
Stay in Touch 
How It Works
Home
Health
Business
Lifestyle
Kids
Travel
Books
Sport