San Giorgio Maggiore, the Salute and the Frari: three great Venetian churches

Many first-time visitors to Venice see St Mark’s and stop there. Yet three churches, a few minutes apart, tell the city’s story better than many museums. San Giorgio Maggiore, on the island facing St Mark’s Square, is Palladio’s masterpiece and holds two great Tintorettos that have just been restored; next door, the Fondazione Cini has the Borges Labyrinth. Santa Maria della Salute, the white dome at the mouth of the Grand Canal, was built as a vow against the plague and has a sacristy full of Titians. The Frari, in the San Polo sestiere, keeps Titian’s Assunta on its high altar, where it has stood since 1518.

For each one you’ll find prices, opening hours, the works to look for and how to get there, plus a route that links all three. Prices and times are those published by the churches at the time of our last update and may change, especially around religious services.

The three churches compared

San Giorgio Maggiore: Palladio, Tintoretto and the Borges Labyrinth

“San Giorgio Venice” means both the church and the small island it stands on, separated from St Mark’s Square by the Basin. The white façade you see from the San Marco waterfront is by Andrea Palladio: building began in 1566 and was finished after his death. The interior is bright, all white and grey, a world away from the gold of St Mark’s.

What to see. In the presbytery, facing each other, hang two huge canvases painted by Jacopo Tintoretto in the last years of his life, between 1592 and 1594: the Last Supper, with its diagonal table and light flaring out of the darkness, and the Gathering of the Manna (or Israelites in the Desert), which prefigures it. Both have recently been restored with the support of Save Venice and are back on display in the basilica.

Hours and entry. The basilica is open daily from 9:00 to 18:00. The abbey’s website does not list a ticket for the church. On Sundays Mass is said at 11:00 in the Chapel of the Deposition.

The bell tower is closed. For years the climb up San Giorgio’s bell tower was a traveller’s secret: the best view of San Marco, without the queues. At the moment, however, the abbey lists it as temporarily closed for major maintenance work, with no reopening date. Check the website before you go. In the meantime, for a view from above there is St Mark’s Campanile.

Fondazione Cini and the Borges Labyrinth

Next to the church, the former Benedictine monastery houses the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, which can only be visited on timed guided tours. The meeting point is the ticket office to the left of the basilica. There are three tours:

• Tour I, the Foundation: the monastery and the Palladian cloister.
• Tour II, the Borges Labyrinth: a hedge maze with a path of about 1 km, walked in about 45 minutes with an audio guide. It is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges and his story The Garden of Forking Paths.
• Tour III, the Vatican Chapels and the Teatro Verde: the chapels in the island’s woods and the open-air theatre.

The reduced rate applies to ages 15 to 26, over-65s and residents. Children under 5 and disabled visitors with a companion go free. The Foundation is closed on Wednesdays. In summer departures are more frequent (for example at 11:00, 13:00, 13:40, 15:20, 16:00 and 16:40), but the times change with the season.

On Tiqets the Borges Labyrinth costs €15, exactly the same as the official single tour, and includes access to the Nuova Manica Lunga, the Foundation’s library. The advantage is free cancellation up to the day before. If you also want to see the cloister, though, the official two-tour ticket at €22 is the better deal.

Getting there. Take vaporetto line 2 from San Zaccaria, about 3 minutes, to the San Giorgio stop. A single ticket costs €9.50: if you will be moving around a lot, consider an ACTV vaporetto pass. San Giorgio is part of the historic centre, so on the days it applies the access fee for day-trippers is due here too. To combine San Giorgio with Torcello and the other minor islands, see our guide to Torcello and San Giorgio.

Santa Maria della Salute: the plague church

The great white dome at the entrance to the Grand Canal is the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, built by Baldassarre Longhena as the Republic’s vow after the plague of 1630–31. It stands on the tip of Dorsoduro, next to the Punta della Dogana, and is one of the most photographed outlines in Venice.

Entry and hours. The church is free to enter. From 1 April to 31 October it is open from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 17:30; from 1 November to 31 March from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 15:00 to 17:30. Allow for the midday break when you plan your route.

The sacristy: Titian and Tintoretto. The real treasure is in the sacristy, visited with a €6 ticket. There are reductions for ages 7 to 14, and children under 6 go free. The visit takes about 20 minutes. Inside you’ll find:

• Titian’s altarpiece of St Mark Enthroned among the saints invoked against plague: Cosmas and Damian, Sebastian and Roch;
• Titian’s three ceiling canvases showing Cain and Abel, the Sacrifice of Isaac and David and Goliath;
• Tintoretto’s Wedding at Cana, signed in 1561 and originally painted for the refectory of the Crociferi.

The sacristy keeps shorter, split hours than the church: in summer it is closed on Mondays and on Tuesday mornings, and on Sunday mornings it opens for only half an hour. Winter hours differ. There are a few steps and no lift. Tickets are non-refundable and there is a 5-minute grace period on your time. If you already have a St Mark’s Basilica ticket bought within the last 6 months, the Salute sacristy is included free. The basilica’s website also sells a visit to the dome: check the price there.

The Festa della Salute, 21 November. Every year Venetians give thanks to the Virgin for the end of the plague. A temporary votive bridge is laid across the Grand Canal leading to the Salute, and all day long Venetians arrive in procession. It is a city festival rather than a tourist event, and one of the best times to see the church.

Getting there. By vaporetto on line 1, Salute stop. On foot from San Marco, the most Venetian way is the traghetto from Santa Maria del Giglio to the Salute, the gondola ferry across the Grand Canal: €2 per person. From the Salute it is a ten-minute walk to the Peggy Guggenheim and the Gallerie dell’Accademia: the rest of the neighbourhood is covered in our Dorsoduro guide.

The Frari: Titian’s Assunta

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is the Franciscan friars’ great brick Gothic church, in the San Polo sestiere. After St Mark’s it is the Venetian church with the most masterpieces per square metre and, unlike many others, it has its own ticket: it is not part of the Chorus circuit, nor one of the churches that are free with a St Mark’s Basilica ticket.

Tickets and hours

Online booking, from the official website, goes through GetYourGuide and adds facilitated entry and a 10% discount voucher for the bookshop. It is not compulsory: outside peak periods you can buy at the door.

Hours. From 25 April to 31 October: Monday to Friday 9:00–19:30, Saturday 9:00–18:00. From 1 November to Easter: Monday to Saturday 9:00–18:00. Sundays and holidays 13:00–18:00. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Visits are suspended all day at Christmas, Easter and Ferragosto (15 August), and may be interrupted for weddings, funerals or concerts. It is a living church: dress appropriately.

What to see at the Frari

• Titian’s Assunta (1516–18), on the high altar: the Virgin rising to heaven above the apostles, on a canvas almost 7 metres tall that you can see from the entrance, framed by the arch of the choir screen.
• The Pesaro Madonna, also by Titian, in the left aisle: the Virgin and Child enthroned, set on a diagonal, with members of the Pesaro family at prayer.
• The Canova monument: a great marble pyramid with a half-open door, built by his pupils to the design Canova himself had drawn up for Titian. It holds the sculptor’s heart.
• Titian’s tomb, opposite, erected in the 19th century on the orders of the Emperor of Austria. Titian died in Venice in 1576 and asked to be buried at the Frari.
• Donatello’s St John the Baptist, a wooden sculpture, and Alessandro Vittoria’s St Jerome.
• Giovanni Bellini’s Frari Triptych, in the sacristy. It is the subject of a study and restoration project that began recently: check whether it is on view before you go.

Getting there. By vaporetto on lines 1 or 2, San Tomà stop, then five minutes on foot. From Rialto it is about a 15-minute walk. About a hundred metres away is the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with its cycle of canvases by Tintoretto: the two fit well into the same morning. For the rest of the area see Castello and San Polo.

A route to see all three

The three churches sit on an arc across the Basin and the Grand Canal. An order that works in one day, with the opening hours in mind:

1. Morning: San Giorgio Maggiore. Vaporetto line 2 from San Zaccaria at 9:00, the church and the Tintorettos, then a Cini tour (the Labyrinth, if it is running: the Foundation is closed on Wednesdays).
2. Late morning: the Salute. Go back to San Zaccaria and take line 1 to the Salute, or walk across San Marco and take the traghetto from the Giglio. Arrive before 12:00 (12:30 in winter), when the church closes for its break.
3. Lunch in Dorsoduro, towards Campo Santa Margherita.
4. Afternoon: the Frari, about 15–20 minutes’ walk from the Salute, across Dorsoduro. On Sundays it opens only at 13:00, so it works well in the afternoon. If you have time, add the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.

If you already have a St Mark’s Basilica ticket, remember that for the next 6 months it also covers the Salute sacristy and about forty other churches: the list, and tips on which to choose, are in our guide to Venice’s churches.