La Rotonda Church in Rovigo
La Rotonda Church, Rovigo
La Rotonda, Rovigo
Since Rovigo is the city where I grew up, I am going to be a ‘campanilista’ and start this blog with the most beautiful building in Rovigo which, in my opinion, is the temple of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso. This church is commonly known in Rovigo as la Rotonda, i.e. the Round Church, due to its octagonal shape. It is truly breathtaking both outside and in. It stands majestically at the far end of a grassy square named Piazza XX Settembre. Your eye is led up to it by an avenue of large and beautiful pine trees. There are no shops but only residential houses here so this is generally a quiet and peaceful space. In fact, the perspective of La Rotonda strongly reminds me of the painting of ‘La città ideale’ displayed at the National Gallery of Urbino.
The Ideal City, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
This painting is one of the most important cityscapes of the Renaissance and shows a square which is devoid of people, has a round building in its centre and classical looking buildings on either side. The proportions of the buildings in the painting display meticulous attention to perspective and harmony, thus making it a masterpiece from the canons of Renaissance architecture.
A great mystery is who painted it, and also who executed two similar paintings now kept in Berlin and Baltimore. Recent studies indicate Leon Battista Alberti as the author of the design whilst Piero della Francesca the actual painter.
Whilst Urbino ‘Ideal City’ dates from the 1480s, the Rovigo Rotonda church was built in the 1590s. But clearly the exterior of this church is reminiscent of the painting. The architect of La Rotonda was Francesco Zamberlan, a close friend and associate of Palladio - the master of Renaissance architecture, so no surprises there!
La Rotonda, interior
It took more than a hundred years to complete la Rotonda so it is again no surprise that the interior, rather than follow Renaissance Canons is instead a masterpiece of baroque art. Every single inch of the interior is in fact covered by sumptuous frescoes whilst the altar is a triumph of gilded-wood decorations and sculptures of angels.
Alas, the Rotonda is not as well known or visited as it deserves. Some art historians have made connections between this Rovigo church and the very famous Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice.
La Salute Church, Venice
First of all both churches are built on octagonal bases - indeed the brief that the Republic of Venice gave Baldassare Longhena - the architect of La Salute - was that the Venetian church should be ‘magnificent’ and ‘rotonda’, i.e. round. Something I have not mentioned yet is that the bell tower of the Rovigo Rotonda, which is one of the tallest in the region, was designed by the same Baldassare Longhena! Finally, la Salute church presents a style which is Baroque as is the interior of Rovigo Rotonda.
Girolamo Brusoni, a seventeenth century scholar remarked that the Rotonda in Rovigo, like the Salute in Venice, belongs to ‘architettura dell’emergenza’, in English we would say ‘Emergency Architecture’. In fact both churches were erected to deal with situations of emergency and pandemics. In particular, la Salute was commissioned by the Serenissima Republic in 1630 to thank the Madonna for finally freeing Venice from the plague which had killed one third of her population.
On the other hand, in Rovigo the commissioning of the Rotonda church was to invoke the protection of the Madonna as the city was often fought over by Venice and the Este family of Ferrara.
The church was also built to house an image of the Madonna which was originally set in the wall of a nearby convent and had been attracting more and more pilgrims. These faithful pilgrims claimed that the Madonna had come to their aid and she had performed numerous miracles.
This is why the Rotonda full name is Beata Vergine del Soccorso, where soccorso means rescue and la Salute in Venice means health.
So here we are: two beautiful churches, one extraordinarily famous and one relatively unknown, but both very definitely linked and both deserving of a visit.
Piazza XX Settembre with Church La Rotonda, Rovigo