This festival has its origins in a religious vow, just like the Madonna della Salute: During the first plague in 1576, the Doge promised to build a church dedicated to Christ the Saviour if the scourge that was destroying the city could be beaten.
The year after, on July 13th 1577, the plague finished, and the Senate decided to start up a city festival on the third Sunday of July each year. The Church of the Redentore (Savior) was built on the Giudecca island and a temporary bridge was built to it for the festival, to connect Zattere to Giudecca. This bridge has been assembled and dismantled every year since. However, the Redentore is not just a religious festival: whereas the Sunday is dedicated to a pilgrimage to the church and the mass celebrated by the Patriarch, the Saturday night is an event of a completely different kind. There is a fantastic fireworks display in the San Marco Bay. The fireworks are placed on rafts in the middle of the water and they light up the bay with a thousand colors. The Venetians wait for the fireworks on boats that are anchored in the middle of the bay and take food and drink with them. They wait until about 10 pm when the first explosions tell them the display is about to begin.
The year after, on July 13th 1577, the plague finished, and the Senate decided to start up a city festival on the third Sunday of July each year. The Church of the Redentore (Savior) was built on the Giudecca island and a temporary bridge was built to it for the festival, to connect Zattere to Giudecca. This bridge has been assembled and dismantled every year since. However, the Redentore is not just a religious festival: whereas the Sunday is dedicated to a pilgrimage to the church and the mass celebrated by the Patriarch, the Saturday night is an event of a completely different kind. There is a fantastic fireworks display in the San Marco Bay. The fireworks are placed on rafts in the middle of the water and they light up the bay with a thousand colors. The Venetians wait for the fireworks on boats that are anchored in the middle of the bay and take food and drink with them. They wait until about 10 pm when the first explosions tell them the display is about to begin.
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