In 1543 in Vigoreto, a little town a kilometer far from the medieval walls of Sabbioneta, there was a miraculous apparition of the Holy Virgin through a painting: the image –presumably frescoed a hundred years beforehand –was situated on a pillar beside a crossroad. The news spread, and many infirm began to be graced. 1547 the population was allowed to build a church that conserved the fresco in his chapel. The consecration took place in 1554, but the building was destroyed some years later, after a heavy flood of River PO. The believers, as well as the generosity of Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga made possible for the church to be rebuilt following the model established by Capuchin friars. In 1556 the friars convent was also erected. After the French Revolution of 1719, the friars were expelled, the convent destroyed and the church looted. The architecture is luckily conserved in its original form. The façade has a simple, humble appearance; it is preceded by a porch supported by four thick pillars and presents four embossed pilaster strips and a central large window. The interior, whose simplicity remained unchanged, reflects the idea of Franciscan poverty and humility: this ideal is represented through mud walls, poor materials and only one aisle, covered by a visible truss ceiling and surrounded by four lateral chapels. 

(Translation Ottavia Mapelli)