Church San Rocco - Siena

Chiesa san Rocco was built in 1511 by the lay society of San Rocco. When the company was dissolved in 1789, the building passed to the Contrada della Lupa, which still owns it.

The facade is simple, in brick, but decorated with an oculus, a 17th-century statue of St. Roch, a tympanum portal of travertine, pilasters and a pediment that crowns the complex.

The room is apsidal, divided into two bays and completely painted with Stories of Job by 17th-century Sienese painters. The adjacent chapel of St. Roch, which houses the 16th-century statue of the titular saint in polychrome terracotta by an unknown artist, is remarkable for its decorative cycle of frescoes depicting the Stories of St. Roch, the authors of which were Crescenzio Gambarelli and Rutilio Manetti were.

Outside the building is a column with the Roman she-wolf, donated by the municipality of Rome. Next to the oratory is the historical-museum headquarters of the Contrada della Lupa, which uses the church as its oratory. The baptismal font is the work of architect Giovanni Barsacchi, with a bronze she-wolf created by Emilio Montagnani in 1962.

Willem Vandenameele