Simple and harmonious, the sacred temple was built between 1594 and 1613 by the engineer Francesco Zamberlan from Bassano Del Grappa, friend and collaborator of the architect Andrea Palladio, with the aim of venerating an image of the Madonna to which various miracles were attributed, including the liberation of Rovigo from pestilence.
Surrounded by a portico with a sloping roof, supported by columns of the Tuscan order, it preserves some characteristic sepulchral gravestones, which were placed on the outer wall of the Rotonda, so as to save them from dispersion following the Napoleonic decree of 1804, in which some of the most important episodes of the city's history.
An extraordinary building, highly suggestive thanks to its lines, which since the Renaissance, the great architects theorized as a circular shape, or attributable to the circle, like an octagon, was the most suitable to symbolize the perfection of God, and therefore perfect for a sacred building.
The interior presents walls covered with paintings and sculptures that make it a compendium of seventeenth-century Venetian art, including the works of artists such as F. Maffei, A. Celesti, G.B. Pelizzari, P. Muttoni, A. Varotari.
The canvases on the walls divide the two bands, in the lower one we can admire 8 large paintings that have episodes from the story of Mary as their subject and another 8 to celebrate the podestàs. At the top there are 17 large canvases, of which 14 to celebrate the podestàs, 2 on health care providers and the last dedicated to the Passion of Jesus, located in the picture above the altar.
The sumptuous high altar in gilded wood, which frames the venerated image of the Madonna del Soccorso at its center, to which miraculous gifts are attributed, was sculpted by Giovanni Caracchio in about 1607. Also, don't miss the precious organ of the famous Venetian organ builder Gaetano Callido, one of the greatest exponents of the time.
