The Redentore Venice celebration is celebrated every year on the third weekend of July, in two days that combine a fascinating spectacle and tradition. The date of the Venice Redentore Church Festival varies each year but the charm of the event remains the same. Every year it also attracts thousands of tourists curious to experience first hand one of the oldest festivals in Venice and to watch a fireworks display that is famous all over the world.
Everything starts in the Redentore night in Venice that is the most awaited moment of the Venice celebrations festival, with St Mark’s Basin in the background, the light effects and reflections on the water create an amazing setting!
At sunset thousands of boats lit and decorated with many colourful balloons take place in St. Mark’s Basin and the Giudecca Canal. The Venice Redentore night program remains the same year after year: Venetians dine together and enjoy the local specialties – pasta and beans, sardines in sauce and plenty of wine – accompanied by music and dancing to get to the highlight of the festival, the amazing Venice fireworks of the Redentore. The Venice fireworks of the Redentore offer a brilliant and unbelievable show, creating an atmosphere of many colours making the city even more magical. The start time is around 11.30 pm and ends after midnight.
At the end of the fireworks show, the Redentore Regatta continues by boat along the Grand Canal or the Venice Lido to watch the sunrise from the beach. In addition to the Redentore fireworks show on Saturday night, Sunday is the traditional festival with stalls, fishing to the patronage of the Church of the Redentore in Venice and the Venetian regattas in the Giudecca canal.
The Redentore celebration is linked to a very ancient tradition, linked to the end of a terrible plague that decimated the inhabitants of Venice.
The terrible scourge that was decimating Venice was defeated thanks to the public devotions of the survivors and especially the solemn vow of Doge Alvise Mocenigo, who vowed to erect a magnificent temple had the Republic of Venice survived the annihilation. After the plague, the vote in the name of Venice was dissolved by the Doge Sebastiano Venier, who held a competition for the construction of the magnificent Redentore church which was won by the architect Andrea Palladio.