The church of San Rocco stands along corso Bettini, in Rovereto, almost opposite the Antonio Rosmini grammar school. It was born of a vow: during the plague of 1630 the podestà, the governors and the citizens went in procession to the wayside shrine «Alla Crosetta», believed to be miraculous, and promised a church dedicated to the Madonna and to Saints Roch, Sebastian and Charles. The first stone was laid in 1631. Once the plague was over, the Franciscans of the convent of Arco built a convent alongside, inhabited from 1638; the church was consecrated in 1651.
What to see
Two flights of steps climb to the forecourt, raised above the street. The gabled façade is of the nineteen-fifties, by the architect Tiella: above the portal is a large terracotta relief of the meeting between Saint Francis and Saint Roch, and beside the semicircular window two passages from the Canticle of the Creatures are incised.
The interior is unadorned, with wall paintings by Francesco Molinari, of 1950, and carved wooden altars painted brown. The high altarpiece, with Saint Roch and the town of Rovereto in the background, is by Domenico Udine, of 1822. The church also has five canvases by Carlo Gaudenzio Mignocchi.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the friars or the parish.
Our editors' tip
The shrine of the vow still exists: it was built into the north wall and now serves as the altarpiece of the left-hand chapel. It is a Virgin and Child in Renaissance taste, attributed to Angelo Falconetto. On the wall of the forecourt, moreover, a plaque records the supposed killing on that spot of Bishop Adelpreto II, in 1177.
