The Festa del Redentore (Redeemer’s Feast) is back in Venice, one of the most heartfelt festivities in which the religious and spectacular aspects coexist. The well-known Festa celebrates the end of the terrible plague epidemic that struck Venice between 1575 and 1577. By order of the Venetian Senate, a church was erected on the island of Giudecca as a votive offering for deliverance from the disease that decimated the city’s population by more than a third in just two years. Once completed, it was decided to commemorate the event annually through a procession along the votive bridge of boats between the Zattere bank and Giudecca.
THE PROGRAMME
On Saturday 20th, at 11.30 pm, the wonderful firework display. The celebrations continue on Sunday 21st of July with Venetian-style rowing regattas along the Giudecca Canal: at 4.00 pm the regatta on two-oared pupparini for juniors, followed at 4.45 pm by the regular egatta on two-oared pupparini and, finally, at 5.30 pm, the regatta on two-oared gondolas. To close the celebrations, the Votive Mass in the Church of the Redeemer on the island of Giudecca, at 7 pm, with the votive bridge closing at midnight.