Rovigo - Main Sights

Main Sights

The architecture of the town bears the stamp both of Venetian and of Ferrarese influence. Main sights include:

• Ruins of the Castle (10th century), of which two towers remain
• Church of Madonna del Soccorso, best known as La Rotonda. If was built between 1594 and 1606 by Francesco Zamberlan of Bassano, a pupil of Palladio, to house a miraculous image of a sitting Madonna with Child carrying a rose. The edifice has octagonal plan, surrounded by a portico, begun in 1594. The original construction had a cupola, which was later substituted by a simple ceiling for static reasons. The fine campanile, standing at 57 m, was built according to plans by Baldassarre Longhena (1655–1673). The walls of the interior of the church are wholly covered by 17th centuries paintings by prominent provincial and Venetian artists, including Francesco Maffei, Domenico Stella, Giovanni Abriani, Alessandro Varotari (il Padovanino), Pietro Vecchia, Pietro Liberi, Antonio Zanchi and Andrea Celesti.
• Cathedral (Duomo, entitled to St. Stephen), originally built before the 11th century, but rebuilt in 1461 and again in 1696. The art works of the interior includes a Resurrection of Christ by Palma the Younger.
• Church of the Immacolata Concezione (1213).
• Church of St. Francis, in Gothic-Romanesque style but with extensive intervention from the 19th century. The belfry is from 1520. In the interior are several Saints sculpltures by Tullio Lombardo (1526).
• The Town hall, which contains a library including some rare early editions, belonging to the Accademia de Concordi, founded in 1580, and a fair picture gallery enriched with the spoils of the monasteries.
• Palazzo Roverella, largely restored but still a good example of Renaissance architecture.
• Palazzo Roncale, a fine Renaissance building by Michele Sanmicheli (1555).
• Palazzo Venezze (1715)
• Pinacoteca dei Concordi ("Concordi Gallery") houses important paintings, including a Madonna with Child and Christ with the Cross by Giovanni Bellini, a Flagellation of Christ by Palma the Elder, a Venus with the Mirror by Jan Gossaert, and portraits by Tiepolo and Alessandro Longhi.