San Rocco is a church at 1 Largo San Rocco, Rome, dedicated to Saint Roch

Roch

Saint Roch or Rocco ; lived c.1348 - 15/16 August 1376/79 was a Christian saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August; he is specially invoked against the plague...

. It is next to the Mausoleum of Augustus

Mausoleum of Augustus

The Mausoleum of Augustus is a large tomb built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The Mausoleum, now located on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, is no longer open to tourists, and the ravages of time and carelessness have stripped the ruins bare...

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History

Founded in 1499 by Pope Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...

 as the chapel of an adjacent hospital, it was rebuilt in 1657 to a design by G.A. De Rossi, and later changes were made introducing the Neo-Classical style to it. A new, Palladio

Andrea Palladio

Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...

-influenced façade by Giuseppe Valadier

Giuseppe Valadier

Giuseppe Valadier was an Italian architect and designer, urban planner and archeologist, a chief exponent of Neoclassicism in Italy.-Biography:...

 was built in 1832.

Initially male only, a maternity wing for women from the Tiber barges was later added to the hospital and, over time, the hospital as a whole came to be used principally by unmarried mothers. Patients who did not wish to give their name had a wing set aside for them, and they were even allowed to wear veils to ensure their anonymity. The hospital was closed at the start of the 20th century and in the 1930s it was demolished for excavations on the Mausoleum, though the church remains and holds various paintings, including one of the Nativity and one of St Martin of Tours

Martin of Tours

Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...

 dividing his cloak, a Baroque altarpiece by Il Baciccia (to be seen in the sacristy), and a carved organ case. At the end of the right aisle is a shrine to the 17th century image of the Madonna delle Grazie, Our Lady of Graces

Our Lady of Graces

Our Lady of Graces or St Mary of Graces is a devotion to the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church...

- the second day of each month is devoted to Our Lady of Graces, a devotion that goes back to 1645.