The Zattere & the Gesuati
Why is it significant?
Breathe in. After the narrow calli, the Zattere is a gift: a long stone promenade full of sun, the broad Giudecca Canal in front of you, and across the water the white façade of Palladio's Redentore. Behind you stands a tall white church with a temple front, the Gesuati.
Key Facts
| Place | The Zattere & the Gesuati |
|---|---|
| Address | Fondamenta Zattere ai Gesuati, Dorsoduro, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.42950, 12.32730 |
| Part of Walk | Art on the Water: Dorsoduro, the Accademia and the Zattere in Venice |
| Generated | Generated |
Breathe in. After the narrow calli, the Zattere is a gift: a long stone promenade full of sun, the broad Giudecca Canal in front of you, and across the water the white façade of Palladio's Redentore. Behind you stands a tall white church with a temple front, the Gesuati.
The name Zattere comes from rafts, zattere, because this is where timber and goods floated down from the mainland were unloaded. The quay is one of the few places in Venice that faces south, so on a winter afternoon half the city seems to be here, sitting on the steps with a coffee or an ice cream, faces turned to the sun. Every July, for the Festa del Redentore, a temporary bridge of boats crosses from here to that church, and the night explodes with fireworks.
Step inside the Gesuati, Santa Maria del Rosario, and look straight up. The church was built by Giorgio Massari in the 1720s and 1730s, and the ceiling is by Giambattista Tiepolo: Saint Dominic and the Institution of the Rosary, painted at the end of the 1730s. Figures float, tumble and climb a staircase into a sky so bright that it seems to open the roof. This is Tiepolo inventing the luminous Venice of the eighteenth century.
The Giudecca Canal has also seen the city's fiercest modern argument. For years gigantic cruise ships glided along it, taller than the bell towers, right past this quay. Residents protested, the world's press took notice, and since August 2021 the largest ships have been banned from the canal. Now it belongs again to ferries, barges and the occasional sailing boat.
The Gesuati who gave the church its name were a small order of lay brothers, suppressed in 1668, and the Dominicans who took over gave the building its glory. Now walk a few steps west along the Zattere to the next canal, Rio di San Trovaso, and follow it inland. On the far bank you will see something that looks as if it belongs in the Alps.