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The Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore (Church of the Most Holy Redeemer), commonly known as Il Redentore, is a 16th-century Roman Catholic church located on Giudecca (island) in the sestiere of Dorsoduro, in the city of Venice, Italy.

It was designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and built as a votive church to thank God for the deliverance of the city from a major outbreak of the plague. The construction started in 1577 by Palladio and finished after his death in 1580 by his foreman Antonio da Ponte, who followed Palladio's original designs. Located on the waterfront of the Canale della Giudecca, it dominates the skyline of the island of Giudecca. The location of Il Redentore was carefully planned in accordance with already existing Palladio's church San Giorgio Maggiore and Palazzo Flangini Fini. It is a member of the Chorus Association of Venetian churches and contains a number of paintings by artists including Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese and Francesco Bassano.

Since its completion and up until modern times Il Redentore serves as a main cite for the civic celebration of the Feast of the Redeemer, which occurs on the third Sunday every July.

History
Il Redentore was built as a votive church in thanksgiving for deliverance from a major outbreak of the plague that decimated Venice between 1575 and 1576, in which some 46,000 people (25–30% of the population) died. The Senate of the Republic of Venice commissioned the architect Andrea Palladio to design the votive church. Palladio has already established himself as a prominent Venetian architect, due to his work on San Giorgio Maggiore, which was also located on the water overlooking Piazzetta. Il Redentore was designed three years prior to architect's death, featuring his late style, and evoked a lot of arguments regarding its plan. Though the Senate wished the Church to be square plan, Palladio designed a single nave church with three chapels on either side. Some believe that Palladio originally produced two different plans for the church.

Palladio believed that churches should be constructed to overlook the most important parts of the city in order to fulfill their role as protectors of the citizens. Il Redentore's prominent position on the Canale della Giudecca gave Palladio the opportunity to execute an example of urban planning that was oriented both towards land and water. White, temple-front facade was inspired by the Pantheon of Rome and enhanced by being placed on a wide plinth. 15 steps were required to reach the church's entrance, a direct reference to the Temple of Jerusalem and complicit with Palladio's own requirement that "the ascent (of the faithful) will be gradual, so that the climbing will bring more devotion". Palladio was a well-known admirer of classical architecture, so interior plan of Il Redentore was inspired by the design of Roman baths.

The land of 80 feet in width and 200 feet in length was purchased on November 22, 1576 from the Lippomano family. The cornerstone was laid by the Patriarch of Venice Giovanni Trevisano on 3 May 1577 and the building was consecrated in 1592. At the urgent solicitations of Pope Gregory XIII, after consecration the church was placed in charge of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. A small number of Friars reside in the monastery attached to the church.

Every year the doge and senators walked across a specially constructed pontoon bridge from the Zattere to Giudecca to attend Mass in the church. The Festa del Redentore remains a major festival in the Venetian calendar, celebrated on the third Sunday in July. A huge firework display on the previous evening is followed by a mass procession across the pontoon bridge.

Conflicts of the design
Being one of the most important civic and religious projects at the time, Il Redentore evoked a lot of arguments and debates about its possible design. The disagreements addressed both the location and the plan of the church.

The planning committee of the church originally wanted it to correspond with Palladio's San Giorgio Maggiore, as both churches are located in the same environment overlooking the water and central parts of the city. In 1576-1577 Venetian senate became increasingly divided, splitting the politicians into two groups: giovani (young) and vecchi (old). Vecchi were the members of older Venetian families that lived in the city before the 800 and had close ties with the papacy. Vecchi, represented by the senator Marcantonio Barbaro, valued the traditions and principles of ancient Roman architecture and therefore argued for Il Redentore to have a round plan, referencing prominent buildings of the Roman empire, and to be located at San Vidal, which is situated on the Grand Canal. Giovani, represented by the families that moved to Venice after 800s, on the other hand, valued mercantile and conservative approach to architecture, which was executed through so-called mediocritas or decorative moderation. The argument in favor of that kind of approach was delivered by Leonardo Dona, a member of the giovani who later became the Doge of Venetian republic in 1606. After successfully arguing that the church should have a longitudinal plan and should be erected on Giudecca, he provided 1500 ducats towards the construction of present Il Redentore. The executed plan for the church was approved by the senate on 17 February 1577.

Exterior
Il Redentore has one of the most prominent sites of any of Palladio's structures, and is considered one of the pinnacles of his career. It is a large, white building with a dome crowned by a statue of the Redeemer. Through the design of Il Redentore the architect expressed his cosmological view of the Christian Church as well as incorporated larger principles of Venetian urban system. Palladio is known for being highly rationalistic and applying rigorous geometric proportions to his façades and that of this church is no exception. The facade was carefully aligned with neighboring waterways: the Grand Canal and Giudecca canal. His architecture carried the idea of "controlling disorderness". The overall height of the building is four-fifths that of its overall width whilst the width of the central portion is five-sixths of its height.

For Palladio it was important to represent the urban coordination of the building front and the surrounding environments. He believed that a facade is one of the most important parts of the structure, as it is the first thing that the viewer sees when he approaches it. Palladio tried to express the connection between church and the heavens by incorporating design features such as ideal proportions and pure white stone. Following the traditional rhythm of a basilica, Il Redentore consists of a nave and two rows of chapels on the side. The aisles, however, have non-traditional and more complicated curve to them, which Palladio was able to mask by incorporating some innovative changes to the facade.

Il Redentore's facade consists of one complete and central temple front, supported by smaller, half temple fronts which are set on the receding wings. The central temple front is situated before the nave, while the half-fronts are placed accordingly before the aisles. Palladio combined the use of flat pilasters and half -columns, executed in a Corinthian order. Composite pilasters and half columns frame the central door. Half-columns on the central facade correspond to half-columns flanking the doorway, as well as pilasters correspond to those on the side wings. These features add to the visual unity and flow of the building as a whole. Nevertheless, there is no continuous entablature on the facade of the building. Rather than that central door and two wings have different entablatures. The design of the wings also bears some peculiarities: the cornices attach to the main facade at the spot where the frieze and the capitals meet.

Il Redentore's innovative temple-front facade recalls Palladio's façade for San Francesco della Vigna, where he used an adaptation of a triumphal arch. The main doorway is incorporated into the shape of a rounded arch, following smaller round arched spaces on both sides that feature marble sculptures.

Il Redentore is an example of a composite building- a building made from different materials, which resulted into its non-typical basilica plan. Although facade is made out of the white stone, the rest of the building is made out of the brick, which creates the contrast between the front and back.

As Venice has always been a very international city and had a lot of eastern influences, it has been suggested that there are some Turkish influences in the exterior, particularly the two campanili which resemble minarets.

Interior
As a pilgrimage church, the building was expected to have a long nave, which was something of a challenge for Palladio with his commitment to classical architecture and to Roman architectural vocabulary. The result is a somewhat eclectic building, the white stucco and gray stone interior combines the nave with a domed crossing in spaces that are clearly articulated yet unified. The church followed a white washed interior decoration, similar to all the counter-reformation churches. An uninterrupted Corinthian order makes its way around the entire interior. Building features vaulted spaces and large clerestory windows, which provided an increased illumination of the space. The vault of Il Redentore has been widely criticized because it appears to be a lot lower in the proportion to its width, as well as it features an unusual curve, which appears to be non-geometrical. Il Redentore does not follow a traditional basilica plan, but instead it consists of a domed structure that is joined to a basilica. One more problem that resulted from peculiar proportions of the building is the inability to connect the nave to the main facade. In order to resolve that Palladio introduced the inclusion of the attic, a short projection from the wall above the portico, which was very untraditional for Venetian churches or Palladio's previous designs. The inclusion of the attic was also unusual in the buildings that followed the basilica plan, as it was normally only used on the round central plans. The inclusion of the attic and the interior of the church as a whole bears a lot of similarities to the Roman Pantheon.

In the interior Palladio created three distinct spaces: a nave with side chapels, a domed space with side apses and longitudinal choir isolated from the rest of the church with the set of columns. By incorporating these different spaces, Palladio unified the functions of Il Redentore both as a votive and a monastery church.

Art work
Il Redentore contains paintings by Francesco Bassano, Lazzaro Bastiani, Carlo Saraceni, Leandro Bassano, Palma the Younger, Jacopo Bassano, Francesco Bissolo, Rocco Marconi, Paolo Veronese, Alvise Vivarini and the workshop of Tintoretto. Sacristy contains masterpieces such as Pietro Vecchia's "The Virgin presenting Jesus to the blessed Felix" and Veronese's altarpiece "The Baptism of Christ". The sacristy also contains other valuable reliquaries that are associated with the history of the church, as well as a series of wax heads of Franciscans made in 1710.

The church was painted by Canaletto a number of times, including one held at Woburn Abbey, England.