Santa Maria della Salute

Santa Maria della Salute is the church that completes the view. Seen from the Piazzetta, the Accademia Bridge or a boat on the basin, its white dome and scrolled buttresses sit at the tip of Dorsoduro like a crown, and it is impossible to imagine the entrance to the Grand Canal without it. The Republic vowed to build it during the devastating plague of 1630 and 1631, which killed a large share of the city's population, and dedicated it to the Virgin as Our Lady of Health, salute meaning both health and salvation. The young architect Baldassare Longhena won the commission, and construction took more than half a century, from 1631 to 1687, finishing a few years after his death. The church stands on a foundation of over a million wooden piles, according to the traditional figure, and its octagonal plan, unusual for Venice, creates a single, light-filled space under the dome, with the high altar dominated by a sculptural group showing Venice kneeling before the Virgin as the plague flees. The church itself is free to enter. For a small fee you can visit the sacristy, which holds one of the best small collections of painting in the city: early and late works by Titian, including ceiling canvases from a demolished church, and Tintoretto's Wedding at Cana, crowded with figures in a long Venetian room. Every year on 21 November, for the Festa della Salute, a temporary bridge of boats is built across the Grand Canal and Venetians cross to light candles in thanks for the city's health, a tradition unbroken for nearly four centuries.

Visiting is easy and free, though opening hours are limited and the church closes in the middle of the day, so check before you go and plan it around the morning or afternoon. Services take priority, and modest dress is expected, as in all Venetian churches. Allow half an hour for the church and the sacristy. The Salute vaporetto stop is just outside on Line 1, or you can walk from the Accademia Bridge through the quiet lanes of eastern Dorsoduro in about ten minutes.

The Festa della Salute on 21 November is one of the most moving events in the Venetian calendar and a rare chance to see the city celebrate on its own terms. A pontoon bridge is laid across the Grand Canal from the San Marco side near Santa Maria del Giglio, and through the day thousands of Venetians cross it, buy a candle from the stalls and light it in the church. Outside, stalls sell sweets and balloons, and the traditional dish is castradina, a slow-cooked smoked mutton and cabbage soup served in restaurants around the feast. If you are in Venice that day, join the procession, and be patient with the crowds.

Make the Salute part of a walk to the tip of Dorsoduro. Next door, the Punta della Dogana, the old customs house at the very point of the district, is now a contemporary art space run by the Pinault Collection, and the promenade around it gives sweeping views across the basin to the Piazzetta, San Giorgio and the Giudecca. Continue along the Zattere, the long, sunny waterfront facing the Giudecca canal, for a gelato or a spritz. The Salute steps, facing the Grand Canal, are a beautiful spot to watch the boats at the end of the day. Inside, look down as well as up. At the centre of the marble floor, a ring of roses surrounds the inscription Unde origo inde salus, from the origin comes salvation, a reference to the legend that Venice was founded under the Virgin's protection. In the sacristy, alongside the Tintoretto, look for Titian's early altarpiece of St Mark enthroned with saints, including the plague saints Roch and Sebastian, painted in another time of pestilence and a fitting companion to the church's purpose.