Church of San Rocco

The votive Church of San Rocco was built in 1485 as a supplication for the end of a plague epidemic. It is built on the site where a capital stood in honour of this saint of Montpellier, and both the church and the cloister are attributed to Lorenzo da Bologna. Enlarged and given a facade in 1530, it is one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture in Vicenza.
Inside, the original hanging loggia was built for the choir of the Secular Canons of San Giorgio in Alga, who lived in the adjacent convent.
There is a remarkable patrimony of paintings, now in part removed and kept in various museums (Pinacoteca Civica of Vicenza, Brera).
Four paintings still kept in the church deserve special mention: Alessandro Maganza's "Paradise" and "Inferno"; and two paintings by Gian Battista Zelotti: "Pentecost" and "Invention of the Cross".
In the Napoleonic Age the convent was changed into an Institute for Abandoned Infants, which looked after babies abandoned inside churches.
The Tabernacle - Liturgical notes

Text approved by the Arts Office of the Diocese of Vicenza

Address: contrà mure san Rocco, 26

Feast-day Masses: 9.30

Opening times: Saturday 9.00-11.00; Feast days 10.30-12.00;
from March to December 2000 Thursday 9.00-12.00