The Church of Saint Roch

The first seat of the San Rocco Confraternity was the church of San Zulian and later S. Maria Gloriosa of the Frari.  On August 9th, 1489, the Scuola – which had since moved first to San Samuele and then to San Silvestro – decided to return to the Frari and to build a new church.  The church was based on the model of Bartolomeo Bon.

The church was characterised by a single aisle which ends with an apsidal presbytery flanked by two side chapels. The façade was of the type called codussiano, divided into three parts by tall pilasters which terminated with the entablature, along which ran the inscription SU(M)MO ET EXCELSO DEO DEVOTA, H(A)EC SCOLA PIE VIVIT ET SANCTO ROCHO HIC IACENTI EIUS PATRONO MCCCCLXXXXIIII placed then at the base of the right side of the church. The door frames, which were decorated with swirls, birds and other symbolic figures following a model of Lombard origin, was surmounted by a lunette with a round-headed arch. Above this, there was a big rose-window, characterised by a rich garland-shaped frame of fruit and flowers. On either side, just above the entablature, two semi-circular gables, surmounted by small temples – with just as many bells – flanked the central one which opened onto the campitura by a second eye and surmounted by the triangular fronton, resting on an entablature with the inscription: SPES FRATERNITATIS SANCTI ROCHI IN DEO EST, which is now walled-up in the basement on the left side of the church. At the top, a large statue of Saint Roch stood out, attributed to Giovanni Buora.

The church kept its original characteristics up to 1725, when it was decided to rebuild the endangered building. At the side of the church towards the Scuola, the old portal and the rose window which belonged to the building erected by Bon in 1489 can be seen. Until 1910, the Church had been connected to the Scuola by a wall, which enclosed the space of campo San Rocco and which – inside a much simpler architectonic structure to that initially planned by the same Maccaruzzi – displayed the statue of the Saint by Giovanni Buora from the sixteenth-century church. When the wall was demolished, because of road conditions, the statue was placed in the “portico delle arche,” the second entrance to the Scuola Grande.

For information about opening times and entry: www.scuolagrandesanrocco.org

Contacts:
Tel. +39.041.5234864
Fax +39.041.5242820
E-mail: snrocco@libero.it