In 1530 the building was started as a votive church against the plague, than slowly continued and finally completed in 1561, as testified by the coat of arms of the venetian governor Giacomo Salomon (1559) on the left column and of Pietro Loredan (1561) under the statue of St. Roch on the façade. Used by Capuchin Friars between 1605 and 1769 together with the monastery built on the rear, that after the closure of the monastery in 1806 was sold by the state and bought by countess Elisabetta Agosti in 1856. After restoring the whole building, the church was reopened in 1860 and the former monastery was transformed into an orphanage by the priest don Antonio Sperti. In 1924 both the church and the former orphanage were given to the Salesian order which run them from 1924 to 1957 and then transformed in 1959 in the “Center Giovanni XXIII”. Outside the church, under the arcade there are two frescoes from 1564 with the Trinity and the Saints Roch and Sebastian, on the right, and Cosmas and Damian, on the left. Inside the church there is a huge XVI century venetian oil on canvas with the Assumption of the Virgin, a St.F rancis by Gaspare Diziani (1689-1767) a wooden tabernacle by Valentino Panciera Besarel (1829-1902) and other paintings by Luigi Speranza (1819-1879), Luigi Cima (1860-1944) and Antonio Duodo.
Source: Marco Perale
ADDRESS
Piazza dei Martiri, 32100 Belluno
