Chiesetta del Cristo
The oratory born with the first Franciscans
A stone’s throw from San Francesco, a 15th-century oratory stands where the first friars built a chapel. Inside: white columns and an old Madonna.
Churches of Rovigo: the city’s sacred places
From the Rotonda to the Cathedral of Santo Stefano, from the friars’ churches to small neighbourhood chapels.
The churches of Rovigo tell a thousand years of religious history: from the 10th century the bishops of Adria lived here, and convents, oratories and sanctuaries grew around them. From the Rotonda, with its two octagons, to the Cathedral of Santo Stefano, from San Francesco, of the late 13th century, to the small neighbourhood chapels, here are all the city’s sacred places that have a guide on Rovigo Segreta. To visit them in sequence follow the route Rovigo of the Bishops, or read the page about the Diocese.
Chiesetta delle Fosse
A Madonna of Pompeii in Rovigo’s poorest quarter
The Fosse were a poor, unhealthy quarter of old Rovigo. Here, in the early 1900s, a two-tone chapel rose for the Madonna of Pompeii.
Curia and Bishop’s Palace
A thousand years to move from Adria to Rovigo
The Bishop of Adria lived in Rovigo from the 10th century, but the Curia only followed him in 1909. The story of a move that took a thousand years.
Duomo (Co-Cathedral) of Santo Stefano
The bishops’ church, with a façade never finished
The bishops of Adria prayed here for a thousand years. An octagonal dome, an unfinished façade, 16th-century treasures: Rovigo’s co-cathedral.
La Rotonda, Temple of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso
Two octagons for a Madonna with a rose
A miraculous fresco, two octagons one inside the other, sixty years of great Venetian painting: the Rotonda is faith and Venetian power.
Church of San Bartolomeo and the Olivetan Monastery
From Umiliati wool-workers to the monks of Monte Oliveto
Umiliati, Olivetan monks, an altarpiece by the painter to His Britannic Majesty and a cloister that tells of great rivers: this is San Bortolo.
Church of San Domenico
The church that shows only its side
No churchyard, no façade: it shows the city only its flank. Behind that wall lie five centuries of hospitals, Dominican friars and markets.
Church of San Francesco
The convent the Este family wanted
Behind a Neoclassical façade hides the Gothic convent founded by Obizzo II d’Este: the oldest religious foundation still active in the centre.
Former Seminario Vescovile
The seminary born of the Council of Trent
Born of the Council of Trent and grown inside an Augustinian convent, it now houses the State Archives. Its library holds 160,000 volumes.