Eleven architects took part in the competition to build the church and the winner was Baldassarre Longhena. His design perfectly captured the grandiosity and magnificence that the Serenissima wanted: a church that exalted the Holy Virgin and the Republic at the same time. The round design (an absolute novelty) symbolised the Madonna’s crown and was also a metaphor for virginity, and these images were extended to the city. The first stone was laid with the plague still raging through the city and the church was consecrated in 1687.

From an urban and scenic viewpoint, the enormous church, situated where the Grand Canal flows into Saint Mark’s Basin, served to counterbalance the awesome domes of Saint Mark’s Basilica and further embellish the landscape.

It is a church with a central plan, covered by a huge dome supported by imposing buttresses. Externally the octagonal design is distinguished by architectural perspectives, the most grandiose of all being the main facade with its impressive portal, emphasised by the wide stairway leading to it.
		The interior is both sober and majestic, with solid archways divided by composite columns.
	Above the opulent main altar is a marble group depicting Venice kneeling before the feet of the Madonna and begging her for protection. Also at the main altar is an image of the Virgin from the 13th century Greek-Byzantine school.

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