The Church of Saint Roch is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Roch in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It was built between 1489 and 1508 by Bartolomeo Bon the Younger

Bartolomeo Bon

Bartolomeo Bon was an Italian sculptor and architect from Campione d'Italia.Together with his father Giovanni, he worked in Venice: they finished the decoration of the famous Gothic Ca' d'Oro and the marble door of the Basilica di Santa Maria dei Frari...

, but was substantially altered in 1725. The façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 dates from 1765 to 1771. The church is one of the Plague-churches built in Venice.

St. Roch

St. Roch

St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second sailing vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage...

, whose relic

Relic

In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s rest in the church after their transfer from Voghera

Voghera

thumb|250px|The Castle of Voghera in a 19th century etching.Voghera is a town and comune of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Pavia...

 (trad. Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

) in, was declared a patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

 of the city in 1576. Every year, on his feast day (16 August), the Doge

Doge of Venice

The Doge of Venice , often mistranslated Duke was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for over a thousand years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city...

 made a pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

 to the church.

Near the church is the Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is a building in Venice, northern Italy.-History:The Scuola di San Rocco was established in 1478 by a group of wealthy Venetian citizens, next to the church of San Rocco, from which it takes its name.In January 1515 the project of the building was entrusted...

, noted for its numerous Tintoretto paintings. It was founded in the 15th century as a confraternity to assist the citizens in time of plague

Pandemic

A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...

.

History

The body of Saint Roch was brought to Venice where his body was said to have been surreptitiously translated and was triumphantly inaugurated in 1485. It was decided to build a church to cover it, and a confratenity, already established in 1478 in the neighborhood for the care of the sick poor, engaged themselves to pay for its erection. The (Confraternity of St. Roch) took eventually its name from the church.

Artworks

The church interior is notable for its Tintoretto

Tintoretto

Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...

 paintings found in the sala dell'Albergo including:

• Annunciation and St Roch presented to the Pope on west wall.
• St. Roch taken to Prison (attributed) and The Pool of Bethesda on south wall of the nave.
• St. Roch curing the plague victims, St. Roch comforted by an Angel, St. Roch in Solitude and St. Roch healing the Animals (attributed) in chancel.
• St. Christopher and St Martin on Horseback by Pordenone
  Il Pordenone
  Il Pordenone, byname of Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis , was an Italian painter of the Venetian school, active during the Renaissance. Vasari, his main biographer, identifies him as Giovanni Antonio Licinio.-Biography:...
  
   hang on north wall of the nave.

Also present are a monument to Pellegrino Baselli Grillo (1517) and a statue of St. Roch by Bartolomeo Bon

Bartolomeo Bon

Bartolomeo Bon was an Italian sculptor and architect from Campione d'Italia.Together with his father Giovanni, he worked in Venice: they finished the decoration of the famous Gothic Ca' d'Oro and the marble door of the Basilica di Santa Maria dei Frari...

.

External links

• Satellite image from Google Maps (just to the left of the large church, the Frari)