Sanctuary Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie (XV-XVIII century)

The Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie rises above the walled city. Originally built in the course of the XV century at the behest of Taddeo d’Este to accommodate the miraculous Byzantine panel painting of the Madonna delle Grazie, the church was completely rebuilt starting in 1717 (the bell tower and the cupola dating from the XIX century). The Republic of Venice in 1770 abolished the Dominican convent and donated the building to the parish of San Martino di Este. In 1924 Pope Pius XI raised the church to the rank of Basilica as a recognition of its prestige. Inside the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Este the spaces open into a large and majestic hall, wonderfully illuminated by the evocative stained glass windows. On the sides there are chapels with altars of clearly Baroque taste. Inside the church you can admire numerous important pictorial and sculptural works, among which a fifteenth-century fresco from the original church, the painting of Saint Anthony of Padua with Child and other Saints by Antonio Zanchi and the sacred panel painting depicting the Virgin and Child. We unfortunately do not have certain and definitive information on the Marian icon that is located in the apse.

Opening times: Standard time, 7 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. / Daylight saving time, 7 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

On Sundays and religious holidays it is open only in the afternoon hours.

Accessibility:

Free entry