Located in one of the oldest areas of the city, the Oratory stands on the burial grounds in front of the church of St. Lucia, which had been donated to the guild of SS. Rocco and Lucia. In 1476, the Confraternity of St. Rocco acquired a building for chapter meetings. In 1525, construction of the current building began; the work was completed in 1542, the year the bishop blessed the Oratory.
The building consists of two superimposed rooms with an irregular rectangular plan and is open on two sides. The lower room represents the ancient chapel with the altar placed on the wall opposite the entrance. The walls of the lower room are completely frescoed: the scenes, illustrating episodes from the life of Saint Rocco, appear to unfold beyond a colonnade and the openings of the hall (windows and oculi) are incorporated into the pictorial composition. The cycle, alternating landscape scenes, domestic interiors, architectures, topped by friezes with grotesque decorations, was created between 1536 and 1545 by Domenico Campagnola (Venice 1500 – Padua 1564), Girolamo Tessari known as dal Santo (Padua circa 1480 – after 1561), Gualtiero Padovano, Stefano Dall’Arzere (documented in Padua from 1540 to 1564). In 1697, on the altar of the lower floor room, the altarpiece with Madonna and Saints by Alessandro Maganza was placed.
Following long negotiations with the State, the Oratory passed to the Municipality of Padua, which contributed to the expenses necessary for restorations carried out between 1926 and 1929. The plaster of the façade was redone; inside it was necessary to redo the concrete ceiling of the vaults, on which the painter Cherubini reproduced the original decoration. Structural reinforcement interventions were made on the ceiling beams of the lower room. A subsequent restoration campaign, addressing the most urgent needs, took place in 1950. On that occasion, about twenty square meters of frescoes to the right of the altar were detached, cleaned and relocated. The campaign started in 1984 was based on a series of preliminary investigations aimed at documenting with scientific analyses the state of conservation of the frescoes, as well as the materials and techniques used.
Information about San Rocco Oratory
Via S. Lucia,
35100 Padua (Padua)
049660836
musei@comune.padova.it
https://padovacultura.padovanet.it/homepage-6.0/2010/12/oratorio_di_s_rocco.html
Source: MIBACT
