History
The small church of the Visitation was not large enough for the Dominicans and by 1720 they had decided to build a new church, larger and of more architectural importance. They first engaged Andrea Musato, but he died in 1721 and they turned to Giorgio Massari, whose model for the new church was accepted in 1724. Rudolf Wittkower describes Massari as "the greatest Venetian architect of the first half of the 18th century".
Work started in 1725, while the Dominicans energetically sought to raise sufficient funds, both from charitable contributions and from religious institutions and benefaxctions. The funding was organised by a Father from Milan, Carlo Maria Lazzaroni, who was successful in raising a very large sum. This enabled them not only to build a magnificent church, but to embellish it with the work of the most famous painters and sculptors of the day.
Massari left untouched the existing church of the Visitation and built the new church further along the Zattere. He was responsible not only for the building itself but also for its interior fittings and decoration and for commissioning the paintings and sculpture. He did not attempt too original a building, thinking that he could best please his patrons by a design based on those of his famous predecessors, in particular Palladio, whose two churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore were within sight of the new church. The facade of the church was derived from the central portion of the facade of San Giorgio Maggiore, while the basic idea for the interior came from the Redentore.
The Dominicans wished the building to celebrate the glories of their order and to encourage devotion to the rosary. The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary) had been made part of the Calendar of Saints in 1716 after a victory over the Turks.
The first stone was laid on 17 May 1726, in the presence of the Patriarch, Marco Gradenigo. The church was consecrated on 29 September 1743, by the then Patriarch, Alvise Foscari. The work was finished (with the completion of the last statue) in 1755 and appears today much as it did then.
Read more about this topic: Gesuati
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