Beata Vergine delle Grazie church

Ownership: Confraternity of Saint Geminianus

There has been a religious building on this site since the fifteenth century. A new church was built later in the sixteenth century, while the present-day one was erected at the beginning of the eighteenth century by the Friars of Santa Maria.

The church has a simple façade with one single central door, above which is the inscription “non si pongono arme de' morti”, forbidding family coats-of-arms from being placed above the tombs. The church is adjoined by a convent, formerly of the Sisters of Charity. The bell tower, visible from the back in Via Vittorio Veneto, was erected in 1451. The interior consists of a single nave with semi-circular apse, four side chapels and two smaller ones.

The vault was painted by Fermo Forti in the 19th century and portrays Saint Geminianus, the patron saint of Modena, saving the city from Carlo d'Amboise and putting it under the protection of the Virgin. Inside the chapel on the left you can admire a seventeenth century painting by Giovan Battista Codebò depicting Saint Geminianus putting the city under the protection of the Virgin, with Saints Homobonus and Sebastian.

Also worthy of note is the Chapel of Saint Geminianus, restored in 2002 and home to a nineteenth century painting of the patron saint. The scagliola altar was made in the early eighteenth century. The organ is the work of Domenico Traeri. The church is the seat of the age-old Confraternity of Saint Geminianus, an ecclesiastical organisation established for the sole purpose of worship .