oratorio, sussidiario, Oratorio di San Rocco, Chiesa di San Rocco

An Oratory Raised from Plague and Stone

This modest Baroque church, built as an ex voto after a plague spared the town, replaces a sacred roadside shrine that once marked the gate to the castle. Its simple rectangular plan and gabled façade are typical of the period, with a central portal in pietra serena and a carved stone oculus above the entrance, through which daylight falls into the interior. The building is mostly plastered, though patches of exposed masonry remain on the side walls, lending it a quiet, unpolished honesty.

On the west flank, the church was built against the old castle gate, now reduced to a vaulted passage leading from the piazza towards the fortress. Later, a rectangular sacristy was added to the east side, its three storeys bearing neo-medieval details: pointed-arch doors and mullioned windows with hexagonal openings above. The roof, tiled in terracotta, slopes over an interior divided by round arches and a lunette vault. A small, layered survivor of faith, plague and time.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.