This is one of the three most important churches in the diocese but is mainly attended by worshippers from the nearby provinces of Verona and Rovigo. It was completed in the late 14C when, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared here to a dumb shepherd girl. Having been cured of her affliction, the girl asked if she could build a church on the site of the miracle.

The first church was an oratory, called the oratory of the Casone. Later, it was given its present name, which means ‘sanctuary church of the community’. It attracted large numbers of pilgrims and was enlarged in the first half of the following century: the Gothic bell-tower and a fresco depicting the Virgin Mary and Saints date from that period. In 1533, at the wishes of Duke Federico II Gonzaga, the church was rebuilt in its present form. It was probably designed by Battista Covo and has a roofed portico running along the front facade and down the left side of the church.

The beautifully elegant interior contains rows of slender marble pillars connected by arches that separate the nave (notice the painted coffered ceiling) from the aisles and presbytery. In the presbytery, between the 18C statues of St Anselm (patron saint of the diocese of Mantua) and St Zeno (patron saint of the diocese of Verona, to which the sanctuary church once belonged), is a much venerated statue of the Virgin Mary in a regal pose.