The Madonna del Soccorso and the 115 Miracles
The popular devotion that gave birth to the Rotonda
From 1591 an image of the Virgin drew crowds of pilgrims to Rovigo. Tradition credits it with 115 wonders, and from them the Rotonda was born.
All routes
Rovigo of the Bishops
Eight stops among churches, convents and archives, all on foot in the old town. Start at San Domenico, the church that shows the town only its side. Continue to the Duomo, seat of the canons’ chapter, and to the building where priests were trained after the Council of Trent. Finish at the Rotonda, the octagonal temple built around an image believed to be miraculous.
Stops
- 1
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 Domenico - 2
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.
Duomo (Co-Cathedral) of Santo Stefano - 3
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.
Former Seminario Vescovile - 4
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.
Curia and Bishop’s Palace - 5
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 Bartolomeo and the Olivetan Monastery - 6
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.
Church of San Francesco - 7
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.
Chiesetta del Cristo - 8
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.
La Rotonda, Temple of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso
