Church of Our Lady of the Earthquake

The oratory of the Madonna del Terremoto or of the Canossa is a small religious construction that is the finishing touch to the beautiful Piazza Canossa. Its construction was inspired by an earthquake in 1693. Local citizens believed they had escaped far more serious disaster thanks to the intercession of a votive image painted there and, years later in 1759, erected a small and refined church dedicated to the miraculous image of Our Lady.

The facade bears the clear inscription A SOLO EXCITAVIT PIETAS ANN. MDCCLIX stating that it was erected out of piety in the year 1759. That same piety commissioned Giuseppe Bazzani, one of the greatest late-baroque Italian painters, to adorn the walls of the nave with a Nativity and Deposition of Jesus.