Sasso Mobile

The Oratory of Saint Roch, whose origins can be traced to 1468, was originally set up within the Castle of Crespellano as an Institute for the Order of St. Roch. The church was originally the seat of the Order of St. Roch and St. Sebastian, a mutual aid society aimed at assisting hospitals, constituted in 1500. The society carried out its activities both inside the church, as a place of public worship, and also throughout the 18th century in the “Pilgrims' Hospital,” which still stands next to the complex. The church and the oratory constituted the headquarters of the Order of St. Roch until the Napoleonic suppression, and then of the Order of the Holy Sacrament until just before World War II. In 1790, as the structure was showing signs of instability, moving the oratory to a site beside the church, on the ground floor, was considered. It was in this period that the church itself was rennovated. Following the plundering of Napoleon, on May 14, 1799 the complex and its adjacent kitchen garden was purchased by the Garagnani family of Crespellano, who continued to use it for religious functions. The church's layout is harmonious: single-naved with a vaulted ceiling supported by pillars topped with composite capitals. The main altarpiece shows the Madonna surrounded by the “plague” saints: St. Roch, St. Carlo Borromeo and St. Sebastian. The lateral niches hold the relics of 118 saints.