9935 Redentore - Venezia

Held on the the third Sunday in July and featured last night in Francesco Da Mosto's Mediterranean Voyage on BBC2, the Redentore is one of the Venetians' most treasured festivities, and is a tourist attraction thanks to the spectacular firework display in the evening.

It falls on the third Sunday in July, when Holy Mass is held in the presence of the Patriarch, followed by a religious procession in the vow church dedicated to the Redentore (redeemer), in return for help in ending the plague of 1577.
But the special moment of the festivity takes place on Saturday night when hundreds of well illuminated boats, decorated with boughs and coloured balloons, begin congregating in Saint Mark's Basin and the Giudecca Canal. In the boats people eat traditional food, waiting for the firework display, which begins at 11.30pm and lasts until after midnight.

The fantastic fireworks display, with the unbeatable backdrop of Saint Mark's Basin, creates a play of lights and reflections and produce a kaleidoscope of colours with the silhouetted spires, domes and bell towers of the city behind.

From the festival and programme-

[IMG]http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z294/sallydonaldson/screenshot_08.jpg[/IMG]

PS See the BBC have taken the credit for my screen shot. The cheeky so and sos!!!

Category
Do & See

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 09:51

Another festivity not to be missed in Venice is St Mark´s Day (April 25th). Some years ago, I attended the Mass celebrated by the Patriarch, including Gregorian chants, an incredible experience. Also, my husband bought me one of the traditional long stem red roses, all proceeds going to the local Red Cross. There are regattas, fireworks.... a magic day to remember.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 04:54

I still have yet to see Francesco da Mosto's Redentore, but I do believe that I was actually there when the BBC was filming several years ago. I had been invited to see Redentore at Redentore. I went with a friend of mine, Patricia Fortini Brown (if you don't know her books about Venice, I highly recommend them; she's the Chair of Art & Archaeology at Princeton, and has written extensively about Venice). Anyway, when Pat and I arrived at Redentore, we were told there was no celebration there -- nothing at all. Somehow the messages and invitations had gotten confused. So, back across the floating bridge of boats we walked. We were about to get something to eat a restaurant, when Pat's cell phone rang. It was John Berendt, who you also might know -- he wrote "City of Falling Angels" -- at that point in time, it was not yet published. Jane da Mosto, Francesco's wife, was up on John's terrace over on the Zattare, and they had seen us walk across the bridge -- they had the BBC up there shooting, so they invited us up to watch the fireworks with them. Francesco was down in a boat. The fireworks were spectacular from that point of view, and I have to say that John Berendt was a GREAT person to watch the fireworks with -- we were yelling and clapping -- it was like a roller coaster ride. So, what started out as a disaster turned into a wonderful Venetian evening.